r 



t 








Book. TTh ? 

Gopyrig}itN°_ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




CO 

a> 

1— t 

a 
< 

09 

o 

O 
ti 

3 

o 

CO 

cd 
o 



CO 

u 



THE COMMONWEALTHS 

AND 

THE KINGDOM 



J\ Study of (De missionary morlc of State eonvcntions 



BY 

FRANK W. PADELFORD 

General Secretary of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society 

Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Education 

Northern Baptist Convention 

WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
HOWARD B. GROSE 

Editor of " Missions " 

Author of "Aliens or Americans ? " etc. 

ILLUSTRATED 



THE GRIFFITH & ROWLAND PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA 

1913 



^A^ 

t.^5 



Copyright 1913 by 
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 



Published October, 1913 



©Ci,A357970 



no 

f - 

'o 

i 






TO 

Ube Earnest anD 2)evoteD mien 

SECRETARIES AND SUPERINTENDENTS OF 

STATE CONVENTIONS, BY WHOSE WISE 

LEADERSHIP AND SELF-SACRIFICING 

SERVICE THE COMMONWEALTHS 

OF THIS NATION ARE BECOMING 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD 



INTRODUCTION 



This book tells the story of State Missions, 
and tells it comprehensively and compactly within 
the compass of a single volume. The author 
knows his subject, and is in full sympathy with it, 
since he has given some of the best and most 
fruitful years of his life to this very work, in the 
State where our Baptist missionary activities be- 
gan, and where to-day the need of State Mission 
work is greater than at any time in the past. 
Massachusetts is now typical of the new condi- 
tions in the older sections of our country, as 
Washington, or Nevada, is of the pioneer needs 
in the rapidly settling West. Emigration and im- 
migration, as the author clearly shows, have radi- 
cally changed the character and religious require- 
ments of our populations. State Missions are 
vastly more important now than they were a 
quarter century ago, and more important at all 
points. East and West alike are missionary 
ground, challenging the faith and strength and 

vii 



viii Introduction 

wisdom and widest service of our churches 
as never before. 

The task of setting forth in true perspective 
the varied and complex work of State Missions is 
not an easy one, especially in limited space. The 
worker in the expansive West, where the human 
currents are swift in their flow, may easily fail 
to appreciate the problems and needs of the East, 
depleted of Christian forces through the move- 
ment westward, and repleted with unevangelized 
newcomers from foreign lands. The worker in 
the East, in turn, under the pressure of these 
wide-spread and often distressing changes which 
are weakening once strong country churches, and 
which mean death to many of them unless State 
Missions can help sustain them — seeing also city 
churches uniting or disbanding — may as easily 
feel that here and not on the frontier is the 
greater crisis in our mission work. These work- 
ers must be made to see eye to eye. The author 
has succeeded in bringing State Missions before 
the reader as a whole, so that there is no sense of 
division or difference of relative importance. It 
is one work, it is all important, essential, vital. 
There is no East and West in this endeavor. 
Each State has its peculiar conditions and its indi- 



Introduction ix 

vidual organization, but all the States are bound 
together by mutual ties and interests, and must 
work in closest cooperation and fellowship if the 
cause is to be advanced and the country blessed. 
Every phase of State Missions is given due con- 
sideration; and beyond that, the relations of the 
State organizations to the national societies are 
set forth, with full recognition of the essential 
aid which the State Conventions have received, 
and but for which many of them would not have 
had existence. 

Here are the facts which every Baptist ought to 
know, put in such wise as to draw the reader on. 
The human interest is never overlooked. This is 
a story of unselfish heroism and unflagging zeal, 
marked all the way along by that spirit of self- 
sacrifice and devotion which ranks the missionary 
enterprise so high in human annals. While the 
author is optimistic in his view of the later de- 
velopments resulting largely from immigration, 
he has clear insight into the new obligations 
imposed upon our Christian communities to evan- 
gelize the inpouring millions. 

The author's outlook is steadily forward. The 
past is drawn upon only so far as is necessary 
to a right understanding of the present. Condi- 



X Introduction 

tions are frankly stated, weaknesses are not 
minimized in city or country, but the temper is 
never that of discouragement before an im- 
possible task and appalling need; it is always that 
of impulsion to greater effort and achievement, in 
the assurance of ultimate victory, because this is 
not man's work alone, but man's plus God. May 
the influence of this little book reach far, for it 
can work only good to our country and the world. 
It is a distinct and valuable contribution to our 
denominational literature. 

Howard B. Grose. 

Boston, Mass. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Foreword i 

L In the Beginning 5 

II. The Ancient Landmarks 29 

III. Means and Methods 59 

IV. Deserts and Gardens 83 

V. The Land of the Setting Sun 107 

VI. The New Americans 133 

VII. Relations and Interrelations 165 

Afterword 191 

Appendices 197 



XI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

First Mexican Baptist Church, Los 

Angeles Frontispiece y 

First Baptist Meeting-house, Boston 12 y 

The gospel wagon in the East 34 / 

A church in the open country 48 

A new mission field 62 \/ 

How a Western church is built 72 y 

A missionary field in the West 86/ 

Where the missionary is welcome p2^ 

Blanket Indian church-members p§; 

A Sunday-school in the mountains 115 / 

A new problem on the Pacific Coast I2p . 

Students from many lands at the Baptist Mis- 
sionary Training School 136-/ 

Italian Bible School in Philadelphia 148 / 

Italian Baptist Church, Brooklyn — Home of 

Italian Theological Seminary 158 v 

A Croatian-Slavic Mission in Pittsburg 175 ,, 

The home of a Western missionary 181^ 

The chapel car '' Glad Tidings "" 183 / 

xiii 



FOREWORD 



FOREWORD 



We propose to tell the story of State Missions 
— a story replete with human interest. It takes us 
back to the early days of the American Colonies, 
carries us through the pioneer and frontier ex- 
periences in the developing West, and brings us 
to the thorough and extensive organization that 
embraces all the great interests of the Kingdom 
to-day. It is a story marked by heroism, intensity 
of patriotic devotion, and achievements that rank 
with any successes of statecraft or commerce. 

The history of State Missions is as full of 
romance and action as any story that Cooper or 
Irving has told. The making of a nation is 
fascinating work; and we shall fail utterly if we 
do not make missions a living force, which will 
take alluring shape and tole you on through chap- 
ters which relate how men and women have built 
their lives into the new States In which they 
found a home and are remaking the older States 
into the Kingdom of God. 

B 3 



4 Foreword 

This book is written at the request of the Coun- 
cil of State Convention Secretaries. Few know 
the story of State Missions. It has never been 
told in print. Few realize the vast part our Bap- 
tist State Conventions and Missionary Associ- 
ations are playing in the making of the Great 
West and the conservation of the American ideals 
in the older Commonwealths. It is to set forth 
this important work that the Council has provided 
that this book be written. To the members of 
the Council and to others the author is indebted 
for many of the facts that have been woven into 
the story. He is especially indebted to Dr. Howard 
B. Grose for most valuable suggestions and assist- 
ance, and for permission to reproduce illustrations 
which have appeared in '' Missions.'' 



IN THE BEGINNING 



IN THE BEGINNING 

The Northern Baptist Convention, the general 
organization of the Baptists of the North, includes 
within its territory thirty-four States, stretching 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Baptists with- 
in each one of these States also have organizations 
of their own, known as State Conventions or Mis- 
sionary Societies. This volume tells the story of 
the development of their work. Beginning with the 
first of these organizations in Massachusetts, which 
dates back to the opening of the last century, the 
work has steadily developed as the States have come 
into existence and passed through the periods of 
settlement and growth. In order to understand the 
present place and work of the State Conventions, 
it is necessary to know something of the conditions 
that gave them birth. The story is one of deepest 
interest, but it can only be suggested here, as the 
purpose of this book is to present the State Con- 
ventions of to-day, the work they are doing, the 
problems they are facing, and the opportunities that 
await them. 

7 



8 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

The Forerunners 

The first American missionary was the first Amer- 
ican Baptist. Roger Williams is famous in history 
as the founder of the first state in the world based 
upon the principle of absolute soul liberty, and as 
the organizer of the first Baptist church in Amer- 
ica. But long before he founded Rhode Island or 
announced himself a Baptist, he was a missionary to 
the Indians, the first in that line made immortal by 
the names of David Brainerd and John Eliot. The 
spirit which characterized the founder became con- 
tagious and permeated the early churches of the 
Baptist order. They were missionary in spirit and 
in effort. 

This spirit manifested itself in many ways. Dis- 
tressed by the reports of religious destitution, the 
little churches frequently sent their ministers on 
long, lonely journeys to preach in the new settle- 
ments on the frontier. By means of this heroic 
service the bounds of the Kingdom were pushed 
farther and farther outward. Often a church would 
colonize and send part of its members out into the 
wilderness to found new towns and churches. The 
famous church at Swansea, for example, the oldest 
in Massachusetts, transplanted bodily from Wales 
in 1663, whose pastor was arraigned in court for 
breach of order " in setting up a public meeting 
without the knowledge and approbation of the court 
to the disturbance of the peace of the place," sent 



In the Beginning 9 

a colony to the Berkshire Hills, in western Massa- 
chusetts, with the result that several churches were 
organized and took rank among the largest in New 
England. 

The First Associations 

Many years prior to the organization of the first 
State Convention, many of the Baptist churches, 
overcoming somewhat their jealous fear lest by com- 
ing together for mutual counsel and inspiration their 
independence should be infringed upon, had banded 
themselves together in several Associations. The 
most noted of these were the Philadelphia, the War- 
ren, including churches in Massachusetts, Rhode Is- 
land, and Connecticut, and the Shaftesbury, com- 
posed of churches in Massachusetts, New York, and 
Vermont. The Philadelphia Association, formed in 
1707, was the oldest, and exerted a strong influence 
upon the denomination. It caught the spirit of the 
Great Awakening, and sent some of its ablest men 
into other sections to inspire and lead the churches. 
The Shaftesbury Association too, for ten years pre- 
vious to the organization of the first missionary so- 
ciety, acted as a missionary organization itself, and 
sent out its missionaries into New York, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada. The representa- 
tives of the churches went everywhere, preaching 
the Word, and there is no mission story more thrill- 
ing than that of these early preachers. By the self- 
sacrificing ministry of these men of God the Baptist 



lo The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

cause was rapidly extended through all the Colonies. 
We shall never estimate fully our debt of gratitude 
to those men of faith and vision, who, in those 
trying times, laid the foundations of the Baptist 
denomination in America. 

The First Missionary Society 

But the burden of the Great Commission was rest- 
ing more heavily upon the hearts of some of the 
great men of that day, and these spasmodic efforts 
of churches and associations were not sufficient to 
meet their convictions of duty, nor the demands of 
the rapidly expanding nation. Organized and united 
efforts must be made to reach the thousands of peo- 
ple who were rapidly scattering over a constantly 
enlarging territory. Members of the churches in 
Boston were convinced that the time had come 
for aggressive action. They accordingly united in 
sending out a letter missive to the churches of 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This letter is 
such an important document in missionary history 
that it is quoted at length. 

To the Christian Brethren united with us in the Faith 
and Order of the Gospel, we send greeting. 

Dearly beloved : Wishing grace, mercy, and peace to 
abound through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. 

Being deeply impressed with the important obligations 
we are under as professing Christians, not only to pray 
for the prosperity of Zion, but to use our best endeavors 



In the Beginning ii 

to promote and spread far and wide the knowledge of our 
divine Immanuel : and reflecting seriously upon the affect- 
ing situation of many of our dear fellow men, who, from 
local and other circumstances, are deprived of the means 
of Christian knowledge and consolation, which we enjoy 
from a preached gospel, we feel our hearts go out toward 
them in ardent desires for their salvation. 

Under such impressions, and dominated by the laudable 
exertions which many of our Christian friends of different 
denominations on both sides of the Atlantic are making to 
extend the empire of truth and promote the salvation of 
dying men, we propose the forming of a missionary society 
for the purpose hereafter mentioned. And, in order to 
make our intention more explicit, we submit to your con- 
sideration the following constitution : 

Constitution 

Article I, This Society shall be distinguished and known 
by the name of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary 
Society. 

Article II, This Society shall be composed of such mem- 
bers only as shall subscribe and pay at least one dollar 
annually to its funds/ 

Article III. The members, at their first meeting, and at 
their annual meeting ever after, shall by ballot appoint 
twelve Trustees, eight whereof shall be ministers or pro- 
fessing brethren of the Baptist denomination; the other 
four may be chosen from the members at large; who 
shall conduct the business of the Society in the manner 
hereafter described. 

Article IV, The object of this Society shall be to fur- 
nish occasional preaching, and to promote the knowledge 
of evangelistic truth in the new settlements within these 
United States; or further, if circumstances should render 
it proper. 



12 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Article V, The Trustees shall have power to apply the 
funds of the Society, according to their discretion, in all 
cases in which they shall not be limited by special direc- 
tion of the Society. 

Article VI. They shall have power to appoint and dis- 
miss missionaries, to pay them, and generally to transact 
all the business necessary for the accomplishment of the 
important object of the Society. 



Article X. The Trustees shall annually exhibit to the 
Society a particular account of the missionaries employed 
by them ; the place to which they are or have been sent ; 
the state of the funds; the receipts and expenditures; and 
whatever else relates to the institution. 



Article XII. The Society shall hold their first annual 
meeting for the choice of officers at the First Baptist 
Meeting-house in Boston on the last Wednesday of May 
next, at nine o'clock a. m., and in every year thereafter at 
the same time and place, unless otherwise ordered by the 
Society or Trustees. 

^ The small sum which by this article is made necessary in order to be- 
come a member, is not designed to restrict such as have it in their power 
to subscribe more liberally. 

The twenty-sixth day of May, 1802, is a mem- 
orable day in Baptist history. On that date, pur- 
suant to this call, there gathered in the meeting- 
house of the First Baptist Church in Boston a nota- 
ble assembly. It included many men whose names 
are foremost in our annals. The Society was organ- 
ized according to the constitution suggested, and 



I^I^H 


HH 


^m 


-"•^---"^^ -. '- - 


^^^H 


|S 


^^ 


k 


^^^^^^^^^^H 


BKt**53* 


»*-^ 


1 \ 


^^^^^H^P 


^^^::e3» 


^^rjs'm 


^^^^^^^^^^Sp 


aiTT?*^ 


d^Sf 


I ^ 


^P 


1 


■ 


1^ 


^^^V ^1 


P^^ 


^\ 


j^^ 


^^m m 


Se»-».^_ .^ 


■n 




^^^^^^^^^V »^s 


^^^^B 


^Ul^^ 


y 


^^^^^^^m S 'a 


^B^^^BS 


MMK-T 


V 


MM 


Ir^^ij 


^^ 




V- ji^ 


Mi 


in 


^ 


^^m .-V j^^^Hfl^l 


Mtt 


ia 


km^ 


■?';v-'^^H| 


m 


H 


Rp^^ 


r :.:; ^^M 


3 


£ab 




^i^l^ 


mm 


m 


jifeV_,-^\r?: 


^^^^^Ki 


iH 


H 


|Hpr 


^H^^^^^^ - 




gP^ 


^^5t^^^ 


Hp 


m 






^^^^^^^^^^^ 


^^^fe^ 


P^ffiHi 


^^^^^^& 


^^^^^^^^^^K 


^^^^^^ 




^^^Hl^£ 



In the Beginning 13 

thus became the first missionary organization among 
Baptists in America. 

During the first thirty years of its history, and 
until the formation of the American Baptist Home 
Mission Society in 1832, this was more than a State 
organization. It was virtually a home mission so- 
ciety. Its missionaries were sent to all settled parts 
of the United States and Canada. They pressed 
westward into New York State, passed on to the 
Holland Purchase, followed the emigrants to the 
Western Reserve in Ohio, visited the new outposts 
in Illinois, crossed the Mississippi into Missouri, 
sailed south to the West Indian Islands, and pene- 
trated into the cold regions of Canada. The story 
of the achievements of those Massachusetts mis- 
sionaries has never been written, can never be writ- 
ten, but many a thrilling incident has been recorded 
of their self-sacrificing efforts to plant the gospel 
of Christ in that rapidly developing country. 

After the organization of the American Baptist 
Home Mission Society in 1832, which was accom- 
plished at the instance and in accordance with the 
plans and efforts of the leading men in this original 
Society, the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary So- 
ciety restricted its work to the State limits and be- 
came the State Convention of Massachusetts. 

In the Empire State 

The story of the organization of this first Baptist 
missionary society in America is recorded at length 



14 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

because it became the type of similar organiza- 
tions which followed rapidly in many other States, 
though their fields of activity were restricted, for 
the most part, to their boundaries. In 1807 repre- 
sentatives from the churches of two Associations 
in central New York organized the Lake Baptist 
Missionary Society. The name was chosen because 
they expected to direct their efforts to " the lake 
country/' Meeting in Hamilton the next year, they 
changed the name to the Hamilton Baptist Mission- 
ary Society. This Society annually drew to itself 
a wider constituency in New York, and for several 
years was the missionary organization of the State. 
In response to a growing demand for an organiza- 
tion that should be more closely related to the 
churches, the Baptist ^Missionary Convention of the 
State of New York was formed in 1821. With it 
was united the Hamilton Baptist Missionary Society 
in 1825. This New York Convention was the first 
convention to be organized as such. In nearly every 
case among the States where Baptist forces were 
early organized, a missionary society preceded a 
State Convention. In 1799 the Bowdoinham Asso- 
ciation of Maine was known as the '' Gospel Mis- 
sion.'^ This developed into a Maine Baptist Mission- 
ary Society in 1804, which was merged into the 
Maine Baptist Missionary Convention in 1824. In 
Connecticut a missionary society was formed in 181 1, 
which became the State Convention in 1823. The 
Ohio Convention, formed in 1826, was the out- 



In the Beginning 15 

growth of the Cincinnati Baptist Missionary Society, 
formed in 1824. Likewise, also, the Conventions in 
New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 

In other States in the central and western parts 
of the country, where organizations were not ef- 
fected until later, the State Conventions were or- 
ganized from Associations which had been earlier in 
existence. This was the case in Indiana (1832), 
Michigan (1835), and Wisconsin (1844). In still 
other States the Conventions have been organized 
directly upon the initiative of the churches them- 
selves. 

Minnesota as a Type 

An illustration of the formation of western Con- 
ventions may be found in the history of the Minne- 
sota Baptist State Convention. On March 3, 1849, 
the United States Congress passed the bill forming 
Minnesota Territory. In all that vast country, ex- 
tending as far as the Missouri River, the census of 
that year discovered less than five thousand people. 
There were a few settlements along the valleys of 
the St. Croix, the Mississippi, and the Red River. 
There was an occasional fort, trading-post, hunter's 
cabin, and missionary station. St. Paul, the capital 
of the Territory, consisted of a dozen frame houses 
not all completed, and some eight or ten log buildings 
with bark roofs ; amid its two or three hundred peo- 
ple, the Indian, the French voyageur, and the half- 
breed were far in the majority. 



i6 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

In July, 1847, i^ response to a most urgent appeal, 
Miss Harriet E. Bishop went from the green hills 
of Vermont to be the first teacher in St. Paul. The 
appeal had said: 

I suppose a good female teacher can do more to promote 
the cause of education and true religion than a man. A 
teacher for this place should love the Saviour, and for 
his sake should be willing to forego not only many of 
the religious privileges and elegances of New England 
towns, but some of the neatness also. She should be 
entirely free from prejudice on account of color. 

Teaching throughout the week, she immediately be- 
gan a Sunday-school with seven scholars. Nearly 
a year later two other Baptists arrived, and these 
three formed the Baptist nucleus of Minnesota. 

The formation of the Territory brought the pioneer 
Baptist missionary, appointed by the Home Mission 
Society, and a great influx of immigrants. That 
year the First Baptist Church was organized in St. 
Paul. The next year two more churches were or- 
ganized, and in 1852 the first Association was 
formed with three churches and sixty members. 
With the coming of settlers, missionaries began 
their work of visitation and organization, and the 
number of churches steadily increased. At the 
meeting of the Minnesota Association in 1857, ^^ 
the motion of Rev. Amory Gale, pastor at Minneap- 
olis, the following resolution was adopted: " Re- 
solved. That in our opinion the time has come for the 



In the Beginning 17 

Baptists of Minnesota to have a chartered organiza- 
tion similar in its objects and operations to the Bap- 
tist Conventions or General Associations of other 
States." A committee was appointed to confer with 
the other Associations, and two years later, on 
August 29, 1859, in the Baptist Church of Winona, 
the Minnesota Convention was organized. It is 
interesting to read that Mr. Gale was appointed 
as the first General Missionary in cooperation with 
the Home Mission Society, and remained in their 
service for sixteen years. What the Baptists of 
Minnesota owe to his devotion and sacrifice, to 
his energetic and wise leadership, can never be 
estimated. 

Michigan Another Type 

Another interesting illustration of the way in which 
State Conventions came into existence may be found 
in the case of Michigan. Missionary work in the 
Beaver State began in 1822 in two difi^erent ways. 
In that year the Triennial Convention, which was 
the national organization of the Baptists and de- 
voted primarily to foreign missions, turned its atten- 
tion to the Indians of America, and sent Rev. Isaac 
McCoy into the Territory of Michigan. He estab- 
lished a mission for the Potawatomie Indians, near 
the site of the present city of Niles. Four years 
later the Convention sent other missionaries to open 
a station among the Ottawa Indians at Thomas, and 
after two years more missionaries were sent to labor 



i8 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

among the Ojibway Indians at Sault Ste. Marie. 
The church estabHshed here was wonderfully pros- 
pered, for in five years it reported, including some 
soldiers, fifty members. Thus the missionary work 
in Michigan began among the native Indians. 

Immigration to Michigan had been delayed be- 
cause of unfavorable reports which had gone forth. 
The State had been handed back and forth between 
France, Great Britain, and the United States. It 
had been the scene of many troubles with the In- 
dians, and in 1815 the United States Surveyor-Gen- 
eral, after a study of the shore line, declared that 
'' the country is very low and swampy, with inter- 
mediate spaces of poor, barren, sandy land, on which 
scarcely any vegetation grows except very small, 
scraggy oaks. It is so bad that not more than one 
acre out of a hundred, possibly not more than one 
out of a thousand, will admit of cultivation." But 
even such discouraging reports could not keep out 
hardy pioneers determined to learn the facts for 
themselves, and as they discovered the real situation 
and found the resources of this State, immigration 
began to set in. 

Now strangely enough in the very year, 1822, 
when the Triennial Convention sent the first mis- 
sionary to Michigan to labor among the Indians, 
the New York State Convention sent one of its 
missionaries. Rev. Elon Galusha, to minister among 
the pioneers in the Michigan Territory. He began 
his work at Pontiac, where he organized the first 



In the Beginning 19 

church in 1822. His commission was that of an 
itinerant missionary, but the New York Convention 
sent another man to be the pastor of this church. 
He organized two other churches, and a third mis- 
sionary of this Convention organized the First Bap- 
tist Church of Detroit in 1827. Thus we have an- 
other illustration of how, previous to the formation 
of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 
these first State Conventions were in reality home 
mission societies reaching far beyond their own 
border in their efforts to extend the kingdom. 

The new settlers came in rapidly, and the mission- 
ary work was pushed with vigor, so that within four- 
teen years fifty-four churches had been organized 
within the Territory. On August 31, 1836, represen- 
tatives from twenty-six of these churches met in 
Detroit and organized the Michigan Baptist Con- 
vention. 

Two principles were embodied in their constitu- 
tion which marked it as distinctive. The Michigan 
Baptists followed the principle of the first mission- 
ary societies rather than of the Conventions, and 
made their Convention to consist, not of representa- 
tives of the churches, but of individuals who paid 
one dollar a year into the treasury. Any one who 
paid ten dollars at a time became a life-member. It 
was not until 1887 that this principle was changed, 
by permission of the Legislature, and the Michigan 
Convention became a delegated body, representing 
the churches. This makes the history of this Con- 
c 



20 The Commonwealths aiid the Kingdom 

vention unique. The second distinctive principle is 
enunciated in Article II of the constitution: 

The design of this Convention shall be to carry out the 
commission of Christ, in giving the gospel to every crea- 
ture by multiplying and circulating copies of the Holy 
Scriptures; aiding Home and Foreign Missions; encour- 
aging Sabbath-school instruction ; promoting the circulation 
of religious tracts and the cause of education, especially 
that of the rising ministry. 

In this way they provided for all the activities 
of the denomination under the direction of one body. 
This was a step many years in advance of the times. 
It had the distinct advantage of preventing the multi- 
plication of many societies for many purposes, as 
soon proved to be the case in other States. But 
it also had the serious disadvantage that it failed 
to focus attention upon the work of domestic 
missions, which was the all-important thing for 
Michigan at that time. For over thirty years mis- 
sionary work within the State was seriously handi- 
capped by this situation, and not until after 1865 
did the representatives of the churches come to see 
that the essential thing for this Convention was to 
emphasize missionary work within their own borders. 
The State Conventions must be interested in all 
phases of the work of the Kingdom, but it is fatal 
for them to forget that their great task is the de- 
velopment of the Kingdom within their own States. 

In one State there are two Conventions. The 
California Baptist Convention was organized in 



In the Beginning 21 

1 88 1, but the State covers such an immense territory 
(158,360 square miles) and the churches were so 
widely separated that in 1889 the State was divided 
and the churches of the south withdrew and formed 
the Southern California Baptist Convention. The 
State of Idaho is also divided between two Con- 
ventions. 

The General Character of the vState 
Conventions 

Baptist State Conventions have now been organ- 
ized in every State in the North, the last being 
formed in Nevada in 191 1. The names of these or- 
ganizations are not uniform, though the usual name 
is simply " State Convention," as the '' Ohio Baptist 
Convention " or the " Minnesota Baptist State Con- 
vention/' In some States the qualifying term 
'' missionary " is added, as the '' Maine Baptist Mis- 
sionary Convention." In West Virginia an unusual 
title is preserved, " The Baptist General Association 
of West Virginia." The title of the original State 
organization was " The Baptist Missionary Society 
in Massachusetts." When two State organizations 
were combined in 1835, the name was changed to 
'' The Massachusetts Baptist Convention." But at 
the centennial anniversary of the organization of 
this first Baptist missionary society in 1902, the 
name was fittingly changed back to the original 
popular title, " The Massachusetts Baptist Mission- 
ary Society." 



22 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

The form of organization in most of the States is 
very simple. The Convention is composed of dele- 
gates from the churches, each church being entitled 
to send its pastor and one or more other repre- 
sentatives, according to its membership. Thus every 
church is assured full rights and privileges. In 
many Conventions provision is also made for repre- 
sentatives from the different Associations in the 
State. In nearly every Convention there are also 
annual members and life members. Annual mem- 
bers become such by the yearly payment of a stipu- 
lated contribution ranging from one dollar to twenty- 
five, according to the different constitutions. Life 
members become such by the payment at one time 
of a specified sum ranging from twenty-five to fifty 
dollars. 

These Conventions in no way interfere with the 
independence of any church, though they seek con- 
stantly to foster the interdependence of all the 
churches. In many of the constitutions it is dis- 
tinctly stated : " This Convention shall never possess 
a single attribute of power or authority over any 
church or association whatever." This declaration 
very clearly reflects the jealousy with which the 
fathers guarded the independence of the local 
church. When State Conventions were first pro- 
posed, there was fear in many quarters that the new 
organization might jeopardize that independence. 
When the call was sent out in 182 1 for the or- 
ganization of the New York State Convention, only 



In the Beginning 23 

five of the seventeen Associations sent their ac- 
credited delegates to take part. When the New 
Jersey Convention was organized in 1829, only 
twenty-six of the fifty-five churches in the State 
could be depended upon for any real cooperation. 
It was necessary for the founders of these Conven- 
tions to declare plainly that the new organization 
should in no way infringe upon the independence of 
the churches. Representing, however, the consensus 
of the churches, the influence of the Convention, 
in an advisory way, often becomes very strong and 
helpful in determining the policies of the churches 
and of the denomination. When the Convention 
makes a contribution to the expenses of a church, it 
thereby becomes a partner in the work of the church, 
and, as such, is entitled to advise and counsel the 
church in its plans and policies, so long as the part- 
nership continues. Representing the churches of the 
State, the Convention speaks for them on great 
moral and religious questions, and represents them 
in denominational and interdenominational fellow- 
ship. 

Missionary Purpose Primary 

The primary purpose of the State Convention is 
the development of missionary work within the 
State, but of late years the Conventions have been 
enlarging the scope of their work and extending 
their energies to many varied interests of the 
churches. In many constitutions the object is stated 



24 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

in the simplest manner possible, as in Southern 
California : 

The object of this Convention shall be to advance the 
Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to promote the general in- 
terests of the Baptist denomination, as provided in these 
By-laws and its Articles of Incorporation, in that portion 
of the State of California lying south of the northern 
boundary-line of the counties of San Luis Obispo, Kern, 
and San Bernardino, 

In some States the purpose is outlined much more 
fully, as in the new constitution of the Wisconsin 
Baptist State Convention : 

The purpose of this corporation shall be to aid churches 
and individuals in promoting the interests of the King- 
dom of God : 

(a) By furnishing a medium for cooperation in accom- 
plishing the purpose of the Corporation. 

(b) By giving expression to the opinions of its con- 
stituency upon moral, rehgious, social, and denominational 
matters. 

(c) By promoting the preaching of the gospel and by 
establishing and fostering Baptist churches in Wisconsin. 

(d) By organizing Sunday-schools and stimulating their 
efficiency. 

(e) By disseminating Christian literature. 

(f) By promoting Christian education. 

(g) By creating and stimulating an interest in, and 
devotion to, missions at home and abroad. 

(h) By encouraging whatever other work the Baptist 
churches of Wisconsin may desire to undertake in common. 



In the Beginning 25 

Methods and Business 

At the annual meetings the Conventions elect 
Boards of Directors or Trustees or Managers, to 
which are committed the direction of all work 
during the year. In most of the States there is 
one Board only in charge of all interests. In some 
States, especially where the constitutions have been 
recently revised, provision is made for several 
Boards for the direction of different phases of the 
State work. Indiana has five Boards: State Mis- 
sions, Educational, Young People, Sunday-school, 
Baptist Brotherhood. 

The principal business of the Conventions is the 
maintenance through their Boards of missionary 
work within the respective States. This work, 
which is to be described in the following chapters, 
is varied. The Convention plants new churches, as- 
sists in paying the running expenses until the church 
becomes self-supporting, helps to secure new build- 
ings, seeks to resuscitate and maintain churches in 
remote country districts, operates Sunday-schools 
in outlying sections, conducts mission work in large 
cities, employs evangelists and pastors-at-large to 
assist the small churches, and inaugurates work of 
many kinds among the millions of new Americans 
who are flocking to our shores. The tasks of the 
Convention are thus manifold and many-sided. 

The supervision of all this work is placed under 
the direction of the Board, in the hands of an ex- 



26 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 



ecutive officer, who is variously known as the Secre- 
tary, the General Secretary, the Corresponding Sec- 
retary, the Superintendent of Missions, or the Gen- 
eral Missionary. This official gives all his time to 
the work, and his office, usually in the most acces- 
sible city, is the headquarters of the denomination 
within the State. While never vested with authority 
over the churches, he is entrusted with large respon- 
sibilities in shaping the policies and overseeing the 
work of the denomination within his State. He 
visits the mission churches, assists them in finding 
pastors, advises them in their difficulties, seeks out 
opportunities for new churches, directs the mis- 
sionaries, recommends policies and appropriations to 
the Boards, solicits funds for mission work, and in 
every way seeks to foster the interests of the 
churches and of the denomination. 

In nearly every case the Convention is incor- 
porated according to the laws of the State, that it 
may hold property, and receive and administer trust 
funds. The Conventions often hold title to church 
properties, as trustees. The churches retain the sole 
care of their buildings, but give to the Convention 
reversionary titles, so that if the churches should 
cease to exist or maintain services, the property may 
revert to the denomination. 

In many States the Conventions have been en- 
trusted with funds, the interest of which is used to 
carry on missionary work. In many cases these 
funds are received first as annuities. The Conven- 



In the Beginning 27 

tion holds the funds and pays the interest to the 
donor during his Hfe, and upon his decease the 
interest is devoted to mission work. This has 
proved to be a most admirable way by which a man 
may assure to himself a certain income during his 
Hfe, and the continuance of his good works after he 
is gone. In the newer States these funds are still 
small. The largest sum, over half a million dollars, 
is held by the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary So- 
ciety. But each Convention is constantly seeking to 
increase its funds, as the interest thereon becomes 
a dependable supplement to the annual offerings of 
the churches for missionary work. Those who are 
interested in the Kingdom find these trust funds of 
the Conventions most satisfactory depositories for 
moneys which they wish to be used for missionary 
purposes. 



II 



THE ANCIENT LANDMARKS 



II 

THE ANCIENT LANDMARKS 

When the missionary spirit found its first expres- 
sion in the organization of missionary societies and 
State Conventions, the one thought in the minds of 
the fathers was of the many new settlements, where 
by reason of their remoteness the gospel was never 
preached. Their hearts were stirred with deep emo- 
tion as they realized that in every direction the wil- 
derness was being broken up and the frontier was 
being pushed rapidly westward, but in the new com- 
munities there were no churches or preachers. Their 
first thought was to send out itinerant missionaries, 
who should go from hamlet to hamlet and hold at 
least one religious service and preach one gospel 
sermon. 

The first appointments therefore of all these 
missionary Conventions were pastors, who were 
asked to leave their own churches for a season and 
do this itinerant missionary work. At their first 
meeting the Trustees of the Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society appointed Rev. John Tripp and 
Rev. Isaac Case as missionaries to the British 
Provinces and the District of Maine. They also 
appointed Rev. John Leland, of Cheshire, to the 

31 



32 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

*' Western Mission/' which term probably included 
New York and Ohio. 

In the same year (1802) the Shaftesbury Asso- 
ciation resolved " to sustain such ministers as 
might enter upon itinerant missionary labors for a 
portion of the year, just so long as they might be 
released from their pastorates." As a result, Rev. 
Caleb Blood '* performed " a tour of '^ the far 
West," and went as far as the head of Lake On- 
tario. Rev. Lemuel Covell and Rev. Obed Warren 
also pushed their missionary journey as far west as 
Buffalo. At an Indian village, five or six miles 
from Buffalo, a council of Indian tribes was held 
for ten days to decide whether they should permit 
missionary work among them. By the advice of 
Red Jacket, the famous chief of the Senecas, it was 
decided to encourage such work, and no small part 
of the service of those early missionaries was de- 
voted to the Red Men. 

The first appointee of the Lake Missionary So- 
ciety (afterward the New York Baptist Mission- 
ary Convention) was Elder Salmon IMorton. He 
labored eight weeks in the " Holland Purchase " 
(western New York), and reported upon his re- 
turn that " he was received with great satisfaction 
by the inhabitants; and that many of the people 
were made to rejoice in the privilege of hearing 
the preaching of the gospel in their destitute condi- 
tion, while many blessings were bestowed upon the 
Society, and ardent prayers addressed to God for its 



The Ancient Landmarks 33 

prosperity." His heart was deeply touched by the 
joy of the people as he came, and by their tears as 
they besought him to return. 

The Compensation of the Pioneers 

The small salaries of missionaries and ministers 
is not a thing of recent origin. The Shaftesbury 
Association paid Caleb Blood twenty dollars for 
this trip to the '' far West," and Elder Morton was 
allowed four dollars a week for his services. The 
Massachusetts Society was slightly more generous, 
and voted that each missionary be allowed his travel- 
ing expenses (he to furnish his own horse), and 
that he receive five dollars a week as a compensa- 
tion for his labor, but '' that all the money each 
missionary may receive as presents be accounted 
for to the Trustees." The first home missionary 
of the Connecticut Society was Rev. James Davis, 
who reported eleven weeks of work, and was voted 
sixty dollars as compensation, with a request that 
he continue. Evidently he was not seriously dis- 
satisfied with his munificent salary, for he con- 
tinued in their employ for three years. When the 
Connecticut Convention appointed its first mission- 
aries, they made the salary six dollars per week and 
traveling expenses, but the next year they were 
compelled to reduce this compensation to five dol- 
lars per week and expenses. 

These men rendered yeoman service. In those 
days men 



34 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Had to go on horseback, and sometimes on shank's mare, 
And blaze a road for them behind that had to travel there. 

They traveled usually on horseback, riding through 
great forests, broken only by the blazed bridle-path, 
and now and then the cabin of a settler or a small vil- 
lage. Their journals record many a thrilling story. 
But they found a royal welcome and people ready 
to hear their message. The word of the Lord was 
precious in those days. No other influence wrought 
so mightily for the benefit of these new settle- 
ments as these itinerant missionaries. The wilder- 
ness and the solitary places were made glad for 
them, and the desert was made to blossom as the 
rose. 

Pastors Follow the Missionaries 

The work of these faithful missionaries soon had 
its inevitable result. Little churches began to arise 
in the wilderness and in the growing settlements. 
Then came the problem as to their shepherding. 
For many years most of them had to depend upon 
the occasional visits of the missionary, and most 
of their services were conducted by deacons and in- 
terested members. But in the growing villages and 
towns the question of pastoral care became more 
pressing. If the churches were to keep pace with 
the growing communities, a settled ministry was a 
necessity. 

But there were not ministers enough to supply 
these churches, even if the churches were able to 



H 
n 

o 

en 
*C 
o 

I— ' 

OP 

o 

13 



02 




The Ancient Landmarks 35 

support them. For this reason churches often com- 
bined in a '' circuit/' and a pastor visited them in 
turn. This secured them a regular ministry. Often 
two, three, or four churches thus combined. But 
even this improvement did not satisfy the need of 
many a growing church. They needed a settled pas- 
tor. But they were not able to pay even the meager 
salaries of those days. They appealed therefore 
to the State Conventions for assistance. The 
Trustees faced these new demands in all serious- 
ness, recognized their necessity in the development 
of Christian churches, and as the means permitted, 
in consonance with the other work which they were 
doing, they made small appropriations for pastors' 
salaries. Thus began a new method of State Con- 
vention work, which for many years has continued 
to be the most important. 

The first recorded appropriation of this character 
was made in 1806 by the Massachusetts Baptist Mis- 
sionary Society, but it was made to a church in an- 
other State. East Greenwich, R. I., was granted 
an appropriation on condition that the church would 
contribute a specific sum, to be paid to a student 
from Brown University, who was to serve as pas- 
tor. This marks not only the beginning of appro- 
priations to churches, but also of the employment 
of student pastors. From that day thousands of 
students in academies, colleges, and seminaries have 
been assisted in completing their studies, and they 
have rendered an inestimable service in the develop- 

D 



36 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

ment of churches which could not at the time af- 
ford settled pastors. The precedent had been set, 
and appeals from the churches came in. Four years 
later the Society made a new departure, and set 
aside a definite portion of its funds for appropria- 
tion to the churches. It is interesting to read that 
at the first meeting of the Connecticut Convention, 
which was not organized until 1823, the first appro- 
priation was made to the First Church in New 
Haven, an early instance, among many, of conven- 
tion aid to a struggling interest that took shape in 
a church of commanding strength. 

As the country has developed and the settlements 
have taken on a more permanent character, the 
itinerant missionary has gradually disappeared, and 
the Conventions have devoted themselves more and 
more to the permanent development of specific 
fields. This development has gone on steadily from 
the East to the West, as State after State has lost 
its frontier character. In some of the newer States 
of the West, the itinerant missionary still has his 
place, but he too will give way to the located mis- 
sionary, and the missionary to the pastor as the 
country becomes more settled. This development 
and care of the churches then is the main business 
of the State Conventions. 

The churches which receive this fostering care 
are of two classes, the churches recently established 
in the new communities and the older churches that 
have been weakened by changed conditions. 



The Ancient Landmarks 37 

A Rapidly Developing Nation 

It is difficult to appreciate the rapidity with which 
our country has developed in the last one hundred 
years. A century ago the frontier was in western 
New York and Ohio, and few people dreamed that 
the great expanse of territory that lies west of the 
Mississippi would ever be anything but a wilderness. 

There were some prophetic spirits, however, in 
that day. The Rev. Howard Malcom, the well- 
known author of the dictionary which bears his 
name, was secretary of one of the eastern Con- 
ventions in 1830, and in his report on the work in 
the State of Illinois, he made this significant state- 
ment: 

The case calls imperiously to the Eastern Baptists for 
help. Perhaps there is no single point on which we, as a 
denomination, can more advantageously spend our money 
than on the support of this region. We have nothing 
in the vast West so important, and that West is the most 
important part of this country. Here is a region extend- 
ing from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, embracing 
a territory in which could be put thirty States equal in 
size to New York, and which will one day, perhaps, con- 
tain two hundred million inhabitants. All New England 
is a speck to this country. Neither Greece nor Burma, nor 
any other country, presents more encouragement to mis- 
sionary labor or more loudly demands it at our hands. 

In the year of that prophecy the first settlement 
was made at Chicago. 



38 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

The rapidity of the development of America has 
been one of the wonders of the world. But that 
very rapidity has put a severe strain upon all re- 
ligious institutions. The effort to keep pace with 
the development has taxed the wisdom and the 
power of religious leaders. How to plant churches 
in every new settlement and care for the spiritual 
needs of the increasing multitudes has been the 
problem. The chief agents in meeting these needs 
have been the various State Conventions. The task 
of finding the men and furnishing the money to 
plant and nourish these thousands of new churches 
has taxed the resources of every Convention. 

The Convention and the Strong Churches 

In the older sections of the country the demand 
for new churches has been largely met, and the 
increase is comparatively slow. The new churches 
are now being planted chiefly in the rapidly grow- 
ing cities, and here the pioneer work of the older 
Conventions is now being focused. But in any 
State a list of the churches that have been aided 
by the Convention would reveal the part the Con- 
ventions have played in the development of the 
denomination. In Massachusetts all but eighteen 
of the three hundred and forty churches have at 
some time had the assistance of the Convention. 
Four hundred and thirty-seven churches in Penn- 
sylvania have been started through the help of the 
Pennsylvania Baptist State Mission Society. Many 



The Ancient Landmarks 39 

of these are now strong churches, some of them 
with a thousand members, and one with nearly three 
thousand. The Ohio list contains such churches as 
the Euclid Avenue, Cleveland; First Church, Day- 
ton; Marietta; Youngstown. The list of churches 
once assisted in New York includes Bushw^ick Ave- 
nue, Gethsemane, Greenwood, in Brooklyn; the 
First, and Immanuel, in Buffalo; Cooperstown, El- 
mira, Jamestown, Geneva ; sixteen churches in New 
York City; eight churches in Rochester, including 
the First; eight churches in Syracuse, including the 
First; five churches in Utica, including the First; 
and about eight hundred others. A study of these 
lists and the similar lists in other States shows what 
the Conventions have done to make possible our 
strong churches. 

More Churches in the West 

In the central and western Middle States there is 
still great religious destitution, and a demand for 
many new churches yet to be formed. The pro- 
vision for these fields furnishes the important work 
for these Conventions. In Ohio there are seven en- 
tire counties without a Baptist church ; eight counties 
with only one Baptist church each; twenty-one 
county-seats with no Baptist church. There are 
scores of towns with over one thousand population 
without a Baptist church. East Salem, for instance, 
IS a town of two thousand, five hundred people with 
no church of any kind within a mile and a half. 



40 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

In Illinois there are two entire counties without a 
Baptist church, and a large number of county-seats. 
There are more than one hundred towns, each with 
more than a thousand people, without a Baptist 
church. In West Virginia, four counties have only 
one Baptist church each; and fourteen county-seats 
have no Baptist church. There are fifty towns with 
over two hundred and fifty people each with no 
religious service of any kind. There is one section, 
twenty-five miles wide and forty-seven miles long, 
with a population of over twelve thousand, without 
a church building of any kind. There is another 
section, thirty miles in diameter, with fifty thousand 
people and church accommodations for only five 
thousand. 

To meet these and similar needs in other States, 
the Conventions are bending their energies. The 
Illinois Convention has established twenty-two 
churches within five years. In West Virginia 
twenty-five new churches have been organized with- 
in a year, and eighteen new meeting-houses erected. 
Most of these churches are at strategic points. Each 
of them must be nourished and assisted until it is 
able to maintain its own work independently, and 
to furnish the funds for this sustenance is the task of 
the State Conventions. 

New Problems Produced by Emigration 

But the rapid development of our country has 
produced problems other than that of fostering new 



The Ancient Landmarks 41 

churches in the new settlements. This development 
has been possible only because multitudes of people 
in the older communities emigrated westward and 
opened the frontier. But their emigration produced 
new problems in the places which they left. It has 
usually been the strongest, most virile, most progres- 
sive people who have gone out. Often whole villages 
have been almost depopulated by the movement. 
How to maintain the old institutions in the com- 
munities that have thus been depleted of their best 
life has been a serious question, but nowhere has 
the question been more serious than in the main- 
tenance of the Christian churches. Another problem 
has thus been created for the State Conventions. 

This emigration began almost as soon as the first 
cabins had been built on the Atlantic Coast. The 
more hardy and progressive of the people began 
at once to push out into the forest and the new 
country in the search for larger farms and more 
room. We have already seen how the little Welsh 
colony, that formed the First Baptist Church in 
Massachusetts, left Swansea and trekked to the 
Berkshire Hills and established several new towns 
and formed the nucleus of several new churches. But 
the church in Swansea was greatly weakened by this 
emigration. One of the strongest Baptist centers of 
Ohio is at Granville, where our Baptist educational 
plant, Denison University, is located. This town 
was settled by a large colony of people, who emi- 
grated from Granville, Massachusetts. The old town 



42 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

was almost depopulated and the little church nearly 
ruined by this departure. This process went on all 
over the Eastern States. Scores of churches were 
entirely obliterated and hundreds of them were 
greatly weakened. 

The weakening of the country churches was also 
accelerated by the movement from the open country 
to the town and city. This began with the develop- 
ment of manufacturing. The more ambitious of the 
young people hastened to the centers where they 
could earn more money than on the farms. 

These two processes have gone on from the be- 
ginning, and are still going on. While the west- 
ward emigration has largely ceased in the Eastern 
States, the young people in a never-ending stream 
pour out of the country into the towns and cities. 
In the central States the emigration is still in proc- 
ess. The rise in the price of land has created a 
good market for the farms and the great tracts of 
rich and fertile land in the West and in Canada 
are drawing thousands of people annually out of the 
central States. Myriads of people are constantly 
trekking from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
other central States to the great West and Canada. 
In the decade reported in the census of 1910, Iowa 
actually decreased in population. The adjacent 
States made slight gains because of the large immi- 
gration of foreigners, but hundreds of their best 
citizens moved westward. The States of Nebraska 
and Kansas are feeling the westward movement in a 



The Ancient Landmarks 43 

serious way. The values of the farms in the eastern 
part of these States have arisen so enormously that 
many farmers are selling and buying again in the 
v^estern and less developed sections of the same 
States, thus leaving a problem behind them and 
creating a new problem where they go. Those cen- 
tral States were originally settled in large part by 
Germans and Scandinavians. While the number of 
these people in these States is larger than ever to- 
day, a careful study of statistics indicates that many 
of the older generation, who have been here longest 
and have become largely Americanized, are moving 
westward, and their places are being taken by the 
new immigrants. A careful computation indicates 
that within the decade 1900- 19 10, fifty-two thousand 
of these people emigrated from Iowa, ninety-seven 
thousand from Wisconsin, eighty-one thousand from 
Michigan, twelve thousand from South Dakota, one 
hundred and five thousand from Minnesota. 

The loss of the rural population is one of the 
most serious aspects of modern American life. Ac- 
cording to the census of 1910, despite the large 
growth in the population of the United States, 
twenty-eight per cent of the counties in Pennsyl- 
vania actually lost in population; in Ohio, forty- 
four per cent; in Illinois, forty-nine per cent; in 
Indiana, sixty per cent; in Iowa, seventy-one per 
cent. In 1880, seventy per cent of our total popu- 
lation lived in the country, while in 1910 the per- 
centage had dwindled to fifty-three per cent. 



44 T^^e Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

This process is having the same effect upon these 
central States that it had a generation ago upon the 
Eastern States. It is also having the same effect 
upon the churches. Baptists have always been pro- 
lific in the open country, where men are more in- 
dependent and have time to think great problems 
through for themselves. We have, therefore, large 
numbers of Baptist churches in the country and in 
the small towns and villages. Consequently, Bap- 
tists have been sorely affected by this emigration 
of the people. In Connecticut two-thirds of our 
churches are in the country, and it is a constant 
struggle for many of them to maintain their work. 
The departure of the stronger, better people has left 
those who do not care for the church and other 
uplifting institutions and rendered the life of these 
organizations most precarious, if indeed they are 
able to survive. 

The Rural Situation in New York 

A few years ago the Evangelical Alliance of the 
United States made a careful investigation of a large 
number of rural communities in the State of New 
York, with the following results: 

Five counties were explored, two in the central part of 
the State, and one in each of the three lobes — northern, 
southern, and western. Excepting the cities, these coun- 
ties were carefully canvassed, the people being visited in 
their homes or carefully inquired after. A study was 
made of economic, moral, and religious conditions, and 



The Ancient Landmarks 45 

statistics of population, churches, church-membership, and 
church attendance were gathered. From one-quarter to 
one-tenth of the population were found in the churches 
on a pleasant Sunday. Somewhat less than one-half of 
the Protestant population claimed to be churchgoers (and 
many of these base such claims upon the fact that they 
sometimes attend a funeral in the church). In fifteen vil- 
lages containing a population of about thirty thousand, all 
in one county, only twenty-five per cent of the people were 
churchgoers. Gne pastor reported that in his calls the 
summer before he found two hundred and fifty heads of 
families not connected with any church. Many Protestant 
church buildings were seen falling into decay, having been 
abandoned long since to " bats and brickbats.'' In one 
village with two disused Protestant churches and one active 
Roman Catholic church, there were fourteen saloons, all 
within a distance of a quarter of a mile. There were, 
a few years ago, in one town, a large Presbyterian church, 
two Methodist churches, a Baptist church, and a flourishing 
Baptist seminary. To-day the Presbyterian church is used 
as a barn, the Baptist church is abandoned, the two Method- 
ist churches are almost extinct, and the Baptist seminary 
is used as a Roman Catholic church. In many villages 
there were twice as many churches as were needed, all 
feeble and struggling with each other for life. While 
along the Erie Canal for eight miles were found scattered 
hamlets, containing together a considerable population, 
where there was no religious service of any kind from 
one year's end to another. Information from other parts 
of the State indicates that these five counties are fairly 
representative of the rural districts of New York. A 
clergyman in another county writes : *' We have investi- 
gated the condition of the county, and find it little less 
than appalling. Not one-half of its children have Sab- 
bath-school privileges, and wide stretches of country are 
without any religious activities of any kind. 



46 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Rural Conditions in the Middle States 

In Illinois there are 1,246 Baptist churches. About 
seventy per cent of them are in southern Illinois, 
and thirty per cent north of Quincy and Danville. 
In the southern portion most of the churches are in 
the country and small villages. Only about a dozen 
can pay a salary of one thousand dollars, and fifty 
per cent pay less than five hundred dollars per year. 
Many of these churches have preaching only once 
or twice a month. In the northern part of the State 
conditions are somewhat better, and yet a third of 
the thirty per cent of churches in this section can 
pay not more than five hundred dollars. Here also 
are a large number of abandoned fields. In almost 
every association there are from two to six or 
more abandoned Baptist meeting-houses where serv- 
ices are never held or where a struggle is made to 
have an occasional service only. 

The missionary problem of Illinois has been made 
doubly difficult by a long denominational struggle, 
which has had its principal arena in this State. The 
northern border of Illinois is in the exact latitude of 
northern Massachusetts, while the southern point of 
the State is forty miles farther south than Richmond, 
Virginia. Northern Illinois was settled by people 
from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, 
while the southern part was settled by people from 
the sunny Southland. Each class brought the preju- 
dices peculiar to its own section. These found their 



The Ancient Landmarks 47 

manifestation in the great missionary controversy 
of the last century. This began in 1817 when John 
M. Peck, the great pioneer missionary and educator, 
came from Connecticut to IlHnois, and Daniel S. 
Parker, the famous anti-mission leader, came from 
Tennessee. This anti-mission, anti-Sunday-school, 
anti-education controversy raged bitterly for more 
than forty years. It sadly divided the Baptist forces 
of the State, and greatly retarded the progress of 
the denomination and of the Kingdom. 

This old-time controversy has had a recent mani- 
festation in the formation of a new State Associa- 
tion, in which many of the churches of southern 
Illinois have united, thus again dividing the Baptist 
forces of the State and presenting a serious obstacle 
to the development of the work of the State Con- 
vention. It is hoped that time will heal these 
divisions and reunite the forces of the denomination 
within the State. 

The missionary problem of Illinois is also com- 
plicated by the fact that two-fifths of the entire 
population of the State live in Chicago, which is of 
itself a great missionary problem. 

A careful study was recently made of nine asso- 
ciations along the southern border of Michigan, 
which revealed the fact that except in ttie city of 
Detroit and a few other centers, the churches are 
gradually losing strength. There are at the present 
time (1913) 258 Baptist churches in Minnesota, 
but 185 churches have disbanded since 1859, and of 



48 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

those in existence, twenty-three are reported as being 
in a precarious condition. More Baptist churches 
have been buried in Wisconsin than are now in 
existence (197). 

Other Causes for Rural Decay 

Other causes are also contributing to the creation 
of these conditions. One of the most recent of these 
is the prosperity of the farmer. Farmers in many 
sections are meeting with unprecedented prosperity. 
As wealth comes to them, they tire of the farms and, 
renting their farms to tenants, they remove to the 
towns and cities. Many of them were men of in- 
fluence in the country churches, and some of them 
fill places of responsibility in the churches where 
they go; but large numbers of them are lost to the 
work of the Kingdom in the shift. They leave great 
vacancies in the churches from which they depart. 
The tenant farmer, if he be an American, seldom 
takes the interest in the church which the owner 
of the land had. Moreover, an increasingly large 
number of these tenants are foreigners, and w^hile 
they may be good farmers, they have no interest in 
Protestant churches. In some States of the middle 
West this removal of the prosperous farmer is work- 
ing havoc with the small churches. Often when one 
strong family leaves one of these country churches, 
it is crippled forever. 

Another most serious cause of the weakness of 
many churches is the frequent pastoral changes. 



o 

c 

o 



n 
o 

13 
O 

O 

c 

rt- 

V3 




The Ancient Landmarks 49 

This is not a new condition. As long ago as 1837 
one of the New England missionaries reported as 
one of the four contributing causes of weakness, 
'' the frequent removal of pastors." A recent sur- 
vey of the pastoral relation in Michigan revealed the 
serious fact that only five men in the entire State 
were serving the same churches which they served 
ten years ago, and that seventy-nine per cent of the 
pastors had come to their charges within three 
years, and fifty-five per cent within two years. The 
Kansas Baptist Year-Book of 1910 showed that 145 
churches were pastorless at one time, and that the 
pastorates are usually very short. Of the 121 pas- 
torates of which the date of settlement is given, one 
had continued for six years, three for four years, 
seven for three years, twenty-one for two years, 
twenty-eight for one year, while sixty-one pastors 
had been on their fields less than a year. Under 
such conditions as these development of strong 
churches is an impossibility. 

Should the Small Church be Maintained? 

With the problem of these small churches the 
State Conventions have constantly to deal. The 
hope is, of course, to develop self-sustaining 
churches that will be able to carry their own burdens 
and maintain their own work. Yet the prospect of 
their future independence ought never to be the 
test of their worthiness to receive assistance. The 
real question is not as to their ability to survive, but 



50 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

to serve. The important query is not as to whether 
a church can ultimately become self-sustaining, but 
whether it can and will serve the Kingdom. The 
question that faces the State Convention is not 
how the weaker churches may be kept alive, but how 
they may be assisted to accomplish the service which 
God has set for them. Many churches must be as- 
sisted, ought to be assisted for years to come, where 
there is no prospect that they will be able to sup- 
port themselves, on the principle of the Master that 
the strong ought to bear the burdens of the weak. 

The Small Church and the Kingdom 

The larger churches must help support these smaller 
churches for self-defense if for no higher reason. 
The country church is the constant feeder of the 
city church. One cause of its weakness, as we have 
already noted, is that it is constantly giving of its 
best life to the town and city churches. The stabil- 
ity, aggressiveness, and spiritual life of our city 
churches are largely augmented by the stream of 
strong, pure, young life that flows from the rural 
districts. A study of statistics reveals the fact that 
the city churches could not possibly maintain them- 
selves by their baptismal increase, but are dependent 
upon the members whom they receive from the 
small churches to maintain their balance. 

It is estimated that at least seventy-five per cent of 
the men and women of influence in the church 
and national life were reared in country homes, 



The Ancient Landmarks 51 

while eighty per cent of our ministers were fur- 
nished by the country churches. The city church is 
not the recruiting station for the ministry. One of 
the strongest churches in Philadelphia has furnished 
but one young man for the ministry in the last 
twenty-five years, while a country church of less 
than one hundred members, in the same State, has 
during these same years furnished eight ministers, 
all of them '' workmen that need not to be ashamed.'' 
The Committee on Ministerial Education of the 
Southern Presbyterian Church reports that one hun- 
dred and fifty-three of three hundred and ninety- 
two candidates for their ministry came from congre- 
gations of less than one hundred members, and that 
almost one-half came from homes of farmers. 

In the earlier days it was the pastors of the 
small country churches who inspired the young 
people with a desire for education and who trained 
them for lives of usefulness. In New Hampshire 
a pastor personally trained a hundred men for the 
learned professions ; among one hundred and twenty 
educated by another were Ezekiel and Daniel Web- 
ster. These days are not entirely gone. One pastor 
of a missionary church in New York State in 191 1 
sent three young men to Cook Academy, three 
young women to Syracuse University, and one to 
the Chicago Training School for Missionary Work- 
ers. Few, if any of them, will return to work 
in the old home church, but they will add strength 
and supply leadership in the strong city churches. 

E 



52 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

A short time ago a pastor in Pennsylvania bore 
this testimony: 

Recently in the city of Pittsburg I came across three 
trusted employees of one business house, which employs 
only a few trusted persons, all of whom were from one 
country church some sixty miles distant. In the same 
city and from the same church are also two practising 
physicians, a civil engineer, a school-teacher, an electrician, 
two stenographers, and a clerk in the post-office. The 
membership of the church from which they came was 
never large. It still exists, and has to struggle to main- 
tain an existence. This church is not in a village, nor even 
at a country crossroads, but is a strictly country church. 
Davidlike, they acquired courage, strength, and faith in 
God, amidst the fields and the flocks and the herds. 

There are thousands of cases like this where the 
young men and women, who received their inspira- 
tion and training in the country churches, have 
become the strength of the city churches. 

Another illustration from Pennsylvania may be 
found in the small church at Milesburg. This 
church sent out into the ministry four brothers by the 
name of Miles. These four men exerted a power- 
ful influence for good in the central and northern 
parts of the State. Thirty-five or forty churches 
have been established by their efforts, and the his- 
tory of two entire associations is largely the story 
of the service of these four men. In addition, this 
church has sent forth three other ministers. 

Perhaps the banner church of the denomination 
is the little country church of West Royalston in 



The Ancient Landmarks 53 

Massachusetts. This church, situated out in the 
open country, has at present twenty-eight resident 
members. In fifty years it has never had more 
than fifty resident members. Its largest member- 
ship, nearly a century ago, was one hundred and 
thirty. During the war for Independence this 
church sent nine men to join George Washington's 
army, and during the war of 18 12 sixteen men went 
forth to defend our liberties. During the Civil 
War thirty-one men went from this church to main- 
tain the Union. This church has sent forth twenty- 
nine ministers, and six of them found their wives 
in its membership. Among the ministers was Rev, 
Amory Gale, the first, and for sixteen years, gen- 
eral missionary in Minnesota, founder of the Minne- 
sota Baptist State Convention and father of its 
last president. The church has also sent out one 
hundred and seventy-five young men and w^omen 
as teachers in the public schools of our country. 
A city church in the same State reports that two 
of its deacons, the superintendent of its Sunday- 
school, and four of the teachers came from the West 
Royalston Church. This is a missionary church, 
maintained in large part by the assistance of the 
State Convention. Does it pay for the denomina- 
tion to maintain such recruiting stations? Many 
of these churches, small in numbers, are strong in 
zeal and good works, like the little church- at Hem- 
lock Lake in New York. This church has but few 
members and is limited in financial resources, but 



54 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

not too limited to have its share in the work of the 
Kingdom. It maintains a native preacher in Assam, 
who in one year received by baptism one hundred 
and fifty- two members into the churches on his 
field as a result of his labors. 

The Problem of the City 

But the country or village church does not fur- 
nish the only problem for the Conventions in the 
older States. In the rapidly growing cities, both 
East and West, the State Conventions face another 
problem equally as serious. At the same time that 
the rural population has been decreasing, the urban 
population has been rapidly increasing. One of the 
most remarkable features of this modern day is the 
development of the city. Nothing like the growth 
of the American city has ever been known in his- 
tory. Chicago added nearly 500,000 to its popula- 
tion in the last decade, while New York added more 
than a million and a quarter. Cities like Minneap- 
olis, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, added 
over 100,000 each. Rochester, Buffalo, Denver, 
Indianapolis, and other cities of that class added 
over 50,000 each. The most phenomenal growth was 
in the cities on the Pacific Coast. Oakland grew 
from 66,000 to 150,000, Portland from 90,000 to 
207,000, Seattle from 80,000 to 237,000, and Los 
Angeles from 102,000 to 319,000. These are only 
illustrations of the marvelous development of the 
American cities of the present day. 



The Ancient Landmarks 55 

But this development has presented great prob- 
lems to the Christian church. Business has crowded 
the residents out of many of the central sections 
of the older cities, thus leaving churches stranded 
without adherents and often without fields, and has 
thus created the problem of the '' down-town 
church." In many cities the better class of people 
have moved into the suburbs, while their places 
have been taken by a very much larger number of 
much poorer people. The churches have found 
themselves with larger parishes and greater oppor- 
tunities, but with much smaller and diminishing 
incomes. These churches must be maintained and 
the State Conventions have found a new problem on 
their hands. 

The growth of the cities has presented many 
new fields for work. New suburbs have been de- 
veloped, in each of which new churches must be 
planted. The forces are small at the beginning, 
made up of those prophetic spirits who are able 
to discern the future and who foresee the impor- 
tance of a Christian church in the new suburb. In 
these new sections a good building is a prime neces- 
sity. The new church must compete for some years 
with the older churches down-town, and only as a 
generation of children who are trained in its Sun- 
day-school find it to be their church home, is the 
new church firmly established. The very nature 
of this struggle for existence makes an adequate 
plant a necessity. A study of the development of 



56 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

such cities as Rochester, Detroit, Los Angeles, will 
reveal the severe strain that has been placed upon 
the churches. This burden must be shared by others 
than the little group of venturesome spirits who 
undertake the new project. Here again the State 
Convention becomes the medium of power, and 
by its support makes possible the desired success. 
In no other way are the State Conventions doing 
more to further the progress of the Kingdom in 
America. 

Many illustrations could be given of the value of 
this city work. Take two illustrations from Penn- 
sylvania. Some forty years ago a little church was 
organized in Uniontown. It was a w^eak, strug- 
gling interest, and required the assistance of the 
State Convention in paying the pastor's salary for 
years. Now the Great Bethel Church is one of the 
strongest in western Pennsylvania with a member- 
ship of eight hundred and a Sunday-school of a 
thousand. It has a property worth $100,000, and 
its missionary offerings are among the largest in the 
State. It is now maintaining a large work among 
the Italians of Uniontown. 

The church in Franklin, Pennsylvania, was organ- 
ized with twenty members, and was nourished by the 
State Convention until it became strong and vigor- 
ous. It now has a membership of nine hundred, 
with a Sunday-school of over two thousand. It has 
one Bible class with eight hundred members. It is 
the largest contributor to missions, with one excep- 



The Ancient Landmarks 57 

tion, of any church in the State. State Convention 
money placed in this church was certainly a good 
investment. These stories could be repeated out of 
the history of practically every State of the Union. 
The task which the Conventions are compelled to 
face in all the older States, where the pioneer con- 
ditions have largely passed, is therefore many-sided 
indeed. Convinced that the fountain-heads must 
not be dried up, they are compelled to maintain 
many small churches which are too weak to main- 
tain themselves. They face a constant procession, 
even in the older communities, for the spirit of 
the emigrant is still upon our people, and the places 
left waste by their departure must be built up. The 
most remarkable phase of modern life is the rapid 
development of our cities, and the State Conventions 
must make these great cities a vital part of the 
Kingdom. The task of the Conventions, even in 
the older East, is tremendous. 



Ill 



MEANS AND METHODS 



Ill 

MEANS AND METHODS 

In the previous chapter we outlined the task 
which faces the Conventions, particularly in the 
eastern and central States. By what methods do 
these Conventions assist these small churches, seek- 
ing to build up the new interests and to maintain 
those which are too weak to sustain themselves? 

The Problem of the Minister 

The most important question which these churches 
have to face is that of their ministry. The minister 
is the key to the problem of the small church. It is 
becoming increasingly difficult to find suitable men 
for the leadership of these struggling churches. 
They need strong, intelligent, tactful, well-trained 
men. The small churches need such men even 
more than the large ones, for the small church is 
much more dependent upon the leadership of its 
pastor. But at best these churches can offer only 
a meager compensation, and with the increasingly 
high cost of living, it is difficult to secure the right 
kind of ministry. 

Much has been written recently on the question 
as to whether there is a real dearth of ministers. It 

6i 



62 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

has been figured out that there are more men in 
the ministry to-day than ever, and that the ratio 
of ministers to churches is greater now than in the 
past. But despite all figures and arguments, those 
who handle this problem at first hand know that 
there is a serious shortage of strong, efficient men in 
the ministry. The dearth is apparent in all parts 
of the country, but especially in the West. There 
are more ministers in the East than in the West, 
but where the conditions are the most favorable 
it is difficult to find properly qualified men who can 
accept the low salaries offered by the smaller 
churches. It is often felt that almost any kind of a 
man can minister to the smaller churches. But many 
of them are small and weak simply because they 
have had incompetent ministers. The test which a 
small country church puts to a man's intelligence 
and capability is quite equal to that which is often 
given by a large city church. They demand the best 
in a man. 

There is no question but that there are hundreds 
of dependent churches which are only waiting the 
advent of strong, efficient leaders in order to rise 
to positions of strength and power. Such leadership 
they must have if strength is ever to come. 

An illustration of the value of the right leadership 
may be found in the case of a certain church in a 
manufacturing city. A pastor had been on the 
field for some eight years. He had a marked faculty 
for soliciting money, but no genius for organization 



ux 

O* 

3 




I 



Means and Methods 63 

and leadership. He collected funds enough to erect 
an excellent house of worship, but when he left the 
church was absolutely without form or organization. 
The deacons had not the slightest conception of the 
duties of their office. The church was in debt, and 
the utmost they could do was to raise four dollars 
per week. The question was discussed of becoming 
a mission of one of the stronger churches of the 
city. 

The State Convention, at its own expense, placed 
in charge of the church a strong man, efficient in 
leadership. He at once began the organization of 
the people, training the officers and committees in 
the duties of their positions, establishing a suitable 
financial system, and creating a sense of solidarity 
and responsibility among the people. The result of 
his leadership was that in three months' time a 
church had been created, a congregation gathered, 
officers trained, and the church called a permanent 
pastor, raising fifteen dollars a week for his salary, 
which the Convention supplemented, and removing 
a large part of a heavy current indebtedness. So 
much for the results in a small church, with a good 
field, provided adequate, efficient leadership can be 
secured. The problem of the small church is the 
problem of leadership. 

The State Convention and this Problem 

The State Conventions seek to help the churches 
to solve this problem first of all. Their superin- 



64 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

tendents and secretaries have it as their first task 
to find reliable men to recommend to these churches. 
They have adequate methods of securing the records 
and reputations of men who are peculiarly adapted 
to particular fields. The task is an increasingly 
difficult one, but churches that trust themselves to 
the advice and recommendations of their secretaries 
seldom find themselves involved in any serious dif- 
ficulties with their ministers. 

With the present methods of calling pastors in 
Baptist churches, the only safety of the small 
churches is in entrusting their interests in the hands 
of the Convention. The Convention does not force 
men upon the churches, but seeks patiently to find 
men who commend themselves to the churches, and 
whose record and reputation are satisfactory to the 
Convention. The church and the Convention are in 
partnership in this business, and must work in har- 
mony. There is no effort on the part of the Con- 
vention to rob the churches of their independence 
in the matter of the choice of a pastor, but simply 
to safeguard them from the selection of the wrong 
man, and to help them find suitable men. 

The Minister's Salary 

But when the ministers are found, the question of 
their support becomes serious. There are thousands 
of Baptist churches in the United States which have 
been unable to raise more than $200 to $600 for their 
ministers. In these days of high prices it is utterly 



Means and Methods 65 

impossible for men with families to maintain them- 
selves properly on these salaries. In some States 
the situation is even worse. In 1905 the churches 
of West Virginia paid an average of only eighty- 
five dollars per year for salaries, and only twelve 
churches in the entire State paid a salary of $500. 
Of the 577 churches existent at that time, only 
twenty-nine had parsonages. It is evident that 
there must be generous assistance from the State 
Association if many pastors in West Virginia are to 
have a living wage. 

According to the report of the United States 
Census Bureau for 1906, the average salary for 
ministers in the United States is $663, and of Bap- 
tist ministers within the Northern Baptist Conven- 
tion is $833. But of the 6,027 Baptist churches 
reporting to the Bureau and from which the aver- 
age was reached, 4,095 were outside of cities of 
25,000 inhabitants, and the average salary of the 
pastors of these churches was $683. The average 
income of all families in the United States is $751, 
and the Chapin Investigation concluded that to keep 
a family of father, mother, and three children under 
fourteen years of age up to a normal standard, at 
least as far as the physical man is concerned, re- 
quired in New York not less than $900 a year. 

Compared with the wages of other workmen, the 
wages of the ministers seem small indeed. The 
average daily wage of blacksmiths is $>2.'/2 ; of flour- 
millers, ^2.yy; of bakers, $2.81; of iron-molders, 



66 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

$3.04; of hat-blockers, $3.39; of painters, $345; of 
plumbers, $4.43; of stone-masons, $4.58; of lino- 
type operators, $5.28; of pottery-makers, $5.30; of 
bricklayers, $5.47; of steel-heaters, $5.69; of glass- 
blowers, $7.04 ; the average for these thirteen trades 
being $4.35. The average daily wage of Baptist 
pastors, outside the large cities, is $2.18. Allowing 
three hundred working days a year and ten per cent 
off for non-employment, the average yearly income 
in these thirteen trades is $1,084.50 as against $683 
for Baptist ministers outside the large cities. A 
recent issue of Dunn's Index indicates that the 
cost of the necessities of life has risen over thirty- 
five per cent in ten years, but there has been prac- 
tically no increase in pastors' salaries. 

It must be apparent how enormous the task of the 
State Conventions has become in assisting the thou- 
sands of small Baptist churches in paying living 
salaries to men who are capable of leading and de- 
veloping the forces of the Kingdom. Were it not 
for the Conventions, hundreds of these churches 
must close their doors. The number of churches 
aided may be judged from the number reported in 
several States: Minnesota, 64; Illinois, 41; Wis- 
consin, 43 ; Kansas, 92 ; Iowa, 80 ; Indiana, 30 ; 
Massachusetts, 95; New York, 166; Oklahoma, 184. 
It requires thousands of dollars a year in the treas- 
uries of the State Conventions to assist these hun- 
dreds of small Baptist churches throughout the 
country to offer a bare subsistence to their ministers. 



Means and Methods 67 

The efforts of several of the Conventions are now 
being directed to secure a minimum wage for the 
missionary pastors equaling about $800 and parson- 
age. This effort has already had a salutary effect 
upon the salaries of many independent churches. 

Combinations of Churches 

Many of the Conventions are seeking to solve 
this problem by combining two or three churches 
under one pastor. This enables them to secure a 
better man and pay him a living salary. In some 
cases these churches may not receive all the pastoral 
service that they need, but in many more cases 
pastors are furnished with a field and a task that 
are an incentive to their best efforts. It is the grow- 
ing conviction of many of the Conventions that 
one well-trained, energetic, efficient man can do 
more on two fields combined, than two partially 
trained, inefficient men can do in two separate fields. 

There are several States where circuit-riding is 
still in existence. This is notably the case in West 
Virginia, where three, four, and five churches are 
often under the care of one man. He visits them 
in turn according to schedule, once every two, three, 
or four Sundays. In some sections of the cen- 
tral States there are many so-called " part-time 
churches," where a pastor spends with each church 
one Sunday in three or four. On other Sundays 
the services are in charge of the deacons or others. 
This, of course, is not satisfactory; a church ought 

F 



68 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

to feel the touch of a prophet at least once in seven 
days. But it is the best method possible when men 
are scarce and money is scarcer. With the utmost 
efforts which the Conventions can put forth this 
method will be necessary in some States for years 
to come. 

General and District Missionaries 

But appropriations to such churches as are thus 
enabled to maintain settled pastors do not meet the 
entire problem. In each State there are churches 
too weak to support a pastor even with the assistance 
of the Convention. There are discouraged churches 
that have lost their vision or gotten into internal 
strife or closed their doors. These churches must 
be cared for if the cause is to be saved. To meet 
this problem most of the State Conventions employ 
one or more general workers. These men are vari- 
ously designated general missionaries, district mis- 
sionaries, associational missionaries, or pastors-at- 
large. In some cases the fields of these men cover 
the entire State. In others the States are divided, 
and each man is given a special territory. For in- 
stance, Michigan is divided into four districts, with 
a man in charge of each. The northern peninsula 
constitutes one district. The southern peninsula 
is divided into the northern, eastern, and western 
districts. New York has the associational districts 
with men in charge of the more needy ones, having 
seven such men under commission. Minnesota has 



Means and Methods 69 

a pastor-at-large for northern Minnesota, another 
for southern Minnesota, and three district mission- 
aries, one each among the Danes, the Norwegians, 
and the Swedes. Iowa has two pastors-at-large 
and three general missionaries for the Danes, 
Swedes, and Negroes respectively. Iowa has also 
led the way in the appointment of a rural church 
secretary. The Convention has secured a man who 
is an expert in the problems of the rural districts, 
and he devotes his time to leading the country 
churches in the adoption of new plans and methods 
whereby the rural church may regain its position 
of power and leadership. West Virginia is divided 
into six districts, and it is the intention to place 
a district missionary in each. 

These men have general oversight of the work of 
the small churches in their section. They counsel 
with the churches, help them to find pastors, con- 
duct series of meetings, supply churches between 
pastorates, take up residence for a period of time 
as acting pastors of discouraged or dying churches, 
and in every way possible seek to revive and 
strengthen the weak places. The value of such 
work may be evident from the following illustra- 
tions taken from State reports. 

Mayville is the county-seat of Chautauqua County, New- 
York, at the head of the lake and near the famous As- 
sembly Grounds. The Baptist church had been closed 
for a long time when an associational pastor was ap- 
pointed. He moved his family to Mayville, began services 



yo The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

in the church, and was acting pastor for many months. 
In about a year's time the church was ready, with the 
assistance of $ioo from the State Convention, to call a 
pastor and was able to secure a rare man to lead them. 
This church was the first in the association to raise its 
apportionment for the Northern Baptist Convention. The 
revival of the Baptist cause there is an occasion for pro- 
found gratitude. 

The Fort Covington Church was closed for many months, 
and it was a serious question whether it could ever be 
opened again, a pastor secured, and a church organization 
maintained. The associational missionary spent about 
three months with the church, rallied their forces, in- 
spired their courage, was acting pastor for many months, 
worked with them to secure a pastor, and was rewarded 
by seeing a man settle with the church. He is a man 
of unusual ability, who responded to the call of duty 
at no little sacrifice, and only the financial assistance 
of the Convention makes it possible for the church to 
secure so strong a man. The spirit of the church may 
be indicated from the fact that one of its members, whose 
annual income is expressed by three figures only, gives 
$100 a year toward the pastor's salary. 

Missionary Evangelists 

Most of the Conventions find that the best way 
to help a discouraged church is by the infusion of 
new blood. For this reason they employ one or 
more evangelists, who devote all their time to hold- 
ing series of evangelistic services in the small 
churches. In the summer many of them use tents 
for open-air services, as to these are drawn many 
people who would not enter a church. The work of 
these men is most difficult, but the returns from 



Means and Methods 71 

their work are manifold. Many times they have 
saved churches that were losing hope, and have 
turned them back on the highway of successful 
service. One illustration will indicate the value 
of their work. A State evangelist visited a country 
church in an eastern State. When he began his 
services this missionary church had thirty-six resi- 
dent members. When the services were completed, 
twenty-nine were baptized into the fellowship of the 
church and nine were received by letter. Thus the 
resident membership of this church was doubled, 
and great inspiration and strength were given to 
the little church. 

The Nebraska Convention places about six regu- 
lar evangelists in the State, and depends upon the 
offerings from the churches for their support. In 
a single year these men hold more than one hundred 
series of evangelistic meetings. The efficacy of this 
work is reflected in the fact that Oklahoma, which 
follows the same method, reports over thirty-five 
thousand people baptized by their missionaries in 
the last eleven years. 

The Conventions do not depend on the evangelists 
alone for this sort of service, but insist that their 
missionary pastors must be evangelistic in their 
work. As a result, in many States the pastors of 
the missionary churches report comparatively a 
much larger number of baptisms than the pastors of 
the independent churches. For example, last year 
(1912) the missionary pastors of Pennsylvania bap- 



72 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom^ 

tized into the fellowship of their churches more 
than a thousand members. This was more than the 
returns from the largest association in the State 
having a membership of more than thirty thousand, 
which is twice the numerical strength of all the mis- 
sionary churches, and which has financial resources 
more than ten times as large as all the missionary 
churches combined. 

Church-edifice Work 

There is another problem which the State Con- 
ventions have to face. When a new church is or- 
ganized, one of the first questions is as to a meeting- 
place. While there are many churches which have 
never possessed a house of worship, it is apparent 
that if a church is to have stability and permanency 
and render much definite service, it must have a 
home. In the older States most of the churches 
have their own buildings. Here the problem is to 
replace old, worn-out, inadequate buildings with 
new ones that shall be adequate for the enlarging 
work. In the cities new buildings must constantly 
be erected to meet the needs of the rapidly develop- 
ing centers. In the newer States there are many 
small churches that have never possessed a property 
of their own. Such churches are numerous in 
States like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota. On 
the one hand southern California reports twelve 
churches without buildings, and on the other West 
Virginia reports one hundred and thirty-five. This 



Means and Methods 73 

latter State is making rapid progress in changing 
this condition, having erected one hundred new 
buildings in four years. Ohio has eighteen more 
meeting-houses than the total number of churches 
for the white race. This condition is due to the 
fact that the Ohio Convention has a most efficient 
Church Edifice Board, which makes regular collec- 
tions and donations for the purpose of erecting 
houses of worship. 

The church-edifice work is most pressing in the 
western States, where churches have outgrown 
the rude structures that were thrown together in 
the early days, and where new churches are be- 
ing constantly organized. Nebraska reports fifty 
new buildings erected during the last two years, 
and yet they cannot keep pace with the increasing 
demand. The greatest progress in church building 
has been made in Oklahoma, where three hundred 
meeting-houses have been erected in ten years with 
a total investment of over half a million dollars. 

Nearly every Convention has some plan to assist 
churches to secure meeting-houses, though in nearly 
every State this is recognized to be the most in- 
adequate department of the work. The income of 
the Conventions is so limited in comparison with the 
demands for regular missionary work that they find 
it exceedingly difficult to divert any considerable 
sums for the erection of new buildings. In most of 
the States the most pressing need is an adequate 
edifice fund. The methods of assistance vary greatly 



74 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 



in the different States. Some donate small amounts, 
varying from $ioo to $i,ooo to churches that are 
building, but restrict their gifts to churches that 
are erecting plants costing less than $5,000 to $10,000 
according to conditions. Other States loan amounts 
from $1,000 to $5,000, without interest or at a small 
rate, for a limited term, and take a second mortgage 
on the property. In these various ways scores of 
churches are aided each year in securing adequate 
working plants, but in every State there ought to be 
a large permanent fund for this specific purpose. 

In many sections of the country, there is evidence 
altogether too striking that Baptists have not given 
the same attention to church building that other de- 
nominations have given, so that in a great many 
places our buildings are markedly inferior. This has 
militated seriously against us. If the Baptists are 
to gain a proper standing in many States, they must 
give more attention to the character of their church 
buildings. 

In the church-edifice work the Conventions have 
had the greatest assistance from the American Baptist 
Home Mission Society, which has disbursed large 
sums of money for the erection of meeting-houses 
in the newer States. Without this assistance prog- 
ress in many States would have been impossible. 
But the funds of the Home Mission Society avail- 
able for this purpose are seriously limited, and the 
Society is able to respond to only a fraction of the 
appeals which pour in upon them with great urgency. 



Means and Methods 75 

OVERCHURCHED COMMUNITIES 

One of the most serious religious problems of 
America is the overchurching of the small towns 
and villages. In former days, when the spirit of de- 
nominationalism was much stronger than it is to- 
day, and when the different denominations believed 
that no community was properly churched until one 
of their institutions was established, small churches 
were multiplied without any regard to the real 
needs of the community or the ability of the com- 
munity to support them. The day of comity had 
not yet dawned. 

The result of this process has been that in most 
towns and villages of the eastern and central States 
there are churches of three, four, or five denomina- 
tions, where there are not people enough to support 
one or two churches well. The result is that no 
church is well supported, jealousies and antagonisms 
have replaced the Christian spirit, and the interests 
of the community have been hopelessly divided. 
Often there are not people enough in all the churches 
to make a fair congregation for one church. These 
unhappy divisions have been the excuse on the part 
of many people for deserting all the churches. 
These divisions were in early days due to strong 
theological convictions, but in most places these 
have now degenerated into inherited rivalries and 
hatred and destroyed the real spirit of Christianity. 

These divisions obtain not alone in the older 



y6 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

eastern States, but very often in the newer towns 
of the West. Denominational leaders have often 
been more anxious for the development of their 
denominations than for the proper care of the new 
communities religiously, and have rushed in to plant 
churches of their faith where the town gave pros- 
pect of some growth. The sad result of this zeal 
has been that in many towns there are more weak 
churches than can possibly be supported, Vv^hile there 
are thousands of square miles with hundreds of 
thousands of people, with no religious privileges 
whatever. 

But this unhappy day is rapidly passing. De- 
nominational leaders are coming to feel that their 
first obligation is to provide adequately for the re- 
ligious needs of the various communities within their 
State, and not merely to perpetuate their own de- 
nomination. A long step ahead has recently been 
made by the organization of the Home Missions 
Council, which proposes to see that fields are allotted, 
that needless duplication is prevented, and that no 
section is neglected. This Council will have no 
ecclesiastical power, but its decisions will have tre- 
mendous moral weight. Its field will be largely in 
the new and undeveloped country of the West, and 
we may hope that a reproduction of the unfortunate 
conditions that obtain in the settled parts of the 
land may be avoided. The organization of this 
Council presages the dawning of a new day in 
American Christianity. 



Means and Methods yy 

The New Spirit and the Old Country 

But the entrance of this new spirit into our Amer- 
ican church Hfe raises another serious question for 
our churches and Conventions. What is to be done 
in communities where there are already too many 
churches? Each church has its history, its con- 
stituency large or small, and its property. It is not 
so easy to combine churches already established as 
to prevent the entrance of new churches. 

There is no settled policy within the Baptist de- 
nomination as to the solution of this problem. In 
some sections there is a very strong conviction that 
there ought to be a Baptist church in every com- 
munity where one can possibly be supported. It is 
felt that Baptists stand for doctrines and methods 
that are distinct and that must be perpetuated every- 
where. Therefore Baptists must never close their 
churches when they can by any means be main- 
tained, and they cannot entertain propositions 
for union or federation. This conviction is held 
very strongly by many Baptists in some sections of 
the country and by some Baptists in all sections. 

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that 
the spirit of unity is developing rapidly among Bap- 
tists as among all other Christians, and many are 
asking what they can contribute to the development 
of a stronger and more united Christianity. The 
question is focused in many small communities 
with more churches than can be maintained. 



78 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Methods of Solution 

It is seldom possible or wise for one church to 
withdraw and leave the field to the others. There 
are sacred traditions and influences that will be 
lost ; but, more important still, experience has proved 
that most of the members of the disbanding church 
are lost to any organized form of Christianity. 
They do not readily find their places in another 
church, and the closing of their church is a dis- 
tinct-loss to the community's forces for morals and 
religion. 

A second solution has been proposed in the union 
of all the churches. This is often possible where 
there is no marked difference between the doctrines 
and practices of the churches, and union churches 
have replaced denominational churches to the great 
advantage of many communities. But Baptists find 
it difficult to join in such union churches. Their 
convictions as to the subjects and modes of bap- 
tism make the union of Baptist churches with 
churches of other orders almost impossible. 

The Federated Church 

A third solution has been found which avoids 
the difficulties of the others, and in many places has 
proved most effectual. This is the formation of a 
federated church. The federated church is com- 
posed of the two or more churches which determine 
to combine for the purposes of worship and work. 



Means and Methods 79 

Neither church entering the federation sacrifices 
its convictions, its customs, or its property. The 
churches simply form an alhance for the purpose 
of rehgious efifort. They adopt by-laws to govern 
their actions, elect officers and committees to lead 
their work, choose one building for the use of the 
church, or use the different buildings for different 
phases of the work, call a pastor who may belong 
to either communion or to another not represented, 
and then worship and work together as one church. 
In this case each church maintains its identity, 
makes no sacrifice of principle, or surrender of prop- 
erty or funds, meets occasionally for the formal 
transaction of business. Members maintain their 
fellowship in their own church, and when new mem- 
bers are to be received, they decide which con- 
stituent church they prefer to join, and are received 
into that church and so become members of the 
federated church. Each constituent church main- 
tains its fellowship with its own denomination, and 
contributes to its denominational work. Thus noth- 
ing is sacrificed, but much is gained in both wor- 
ship and work. 

This form of church federation does not receive 
the approval of some of the State Conventions, 
which fear that something essential will be sacri- 
ficed thereby. But other Conventions, especially in 
the East, have received it with great favor and 
are pushing the formation of federated churches as 
rapidly as possible. 



8o The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Examples of Federation 

Some interesting examples of church federation 
may be given. There is a hill town in Massa- 
chusetts upon the summit of which were located 
a Baptist church and a Congregational church. The 
two buildings were not twenty paces apart. Fifty 
years ago the town had a population of two thousand, 
five hundred. To-day the population is two hun- 
dred and fifty. The two churches, once strong and 
vigorous, have become weak, yet each was seeking 
to maintain itself with the help of the two Conven- 
tions. The interests of all the people were com- 
mon on every day except Sunday, when they sepa- 
rated to worship Him who prayed that they might 
be one. Through the suggestion and assistance of 
the Baptist and Congregational Missionary Socie- 
ties (Conventions) these two churches formed the 
Federated Church of Shutesbury, and have been 
working and worshiping together in perfect peace 
and good-fellowship for two years with the utmost 
satisfaction to all concerned. It has been suggested 
that heaven set its approval upon this union of 
Christians, for just as the federation was consum- 
mated and when the only question unsettled was as 
to which building should be selected as the place of 
worship, lightning struck the less suitable plant, 
and it was totally consumed by fire. 

Somerset is another small town in Massachusetts 
with two thousand, three hundred inhabitants. There 



Means and Methods 8i 

were three Protestant churches in the village — Bap- 
tist, Congregational, and Methodist. An effort was 
made to federate all three, but a federation of the 
Baptist and Congregational churches was finally 
consummated. This federation has been highly suc- 
cessful for about two years, and people in all that 
section have been repeating the old Scriptural ex- 
clamation, '' Behold how these Christians love one 
another ! '' A Baptist pastor lives in a Congrega- 
tional parsonage, preaches in a Baptist meeting- 
house, and has a Congregational meeting-house as 
a social center for his work in the village. 

The solution of some of the problems in many 
overchurched communities has thus been found, 
and some of the State Conventions are lending their 
aid in hastening a better day in many villages and 
towns, where the Spirit of Christ is most effectually 
replacing the former jealousies and antagonisms. 

By these and other methods peculiar to their own 
conditions, the Conventions in the various States 
are aiding hundreds of churches, as far as their 
limited means allow. Some of the churches thus 
aided can never become self-supporting, but they 
are valuable contributors to the interests of the King- 
dom. Other missionary churches, especially in the 
new States, are thus advancing rapidly toward self- 
support and coming to take their places in the 
establishment of the Kingdom. In western Wash- 
ington alone forty churches have become self-sup- 
porting in ten years. 



IV 
DESERTS AND GARDENS 



ly 

DESERTS AND GARDENS 

The frontier of America is fast disappearing. 
Ever since the bolder spirits among the Pilgrims 
and the Puritans forsook their first little settle- 
ments around Massachusetts Bay and pressed west- 
ward toward the more fertile plains in the valley of 
the Connecticut, the pioneers have been gradually 
pushing the frontier of America toward the western 
ocean. They have pressed it now almost into the 
sea. But between the valley of the Mississippi and 
the eastern slopes of the western mountains there 
lies a great section of the United States that was 
once known as the Great American Desert. It em- 
braces a large part of the continent, and includes 
the western parts of Nebraska and Kansas, Mon- 
tana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, 
Nevada, and Arizona, as well as sections of North 
and South Dakota and Oklahoma. Only a part of 
this vast tract is a desert, but, except in the river 
valleys, much of it is dry and arid. The moun- 
tainous sections of such States as Colorado, Utah, 
and Nevada have long been known to be rich with 
ore, and have added great piles to the nation's 
wealth, but the character of the land has delayed its 

85 



86 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

opening to population and civilization. The early 
settlers pressed their weary journeys across these 
immense and arid stretches toward the fertile plains 
beyond the mountains. It was long supposed that 
this great section would be well-nigh worthless to 
the nation. 

But when the pick of the prospectors unearthed 
the coal and iron ore, the lead and the silver and the 
gold, large numbers of people rushed into this land, 
and for more than a generation now the earth has 
been giving forth of its bounty and revealing the 
stores of wealth that God has hidden away for his 
children. But the miner does not build a high type 
of civilization nor a permanent one. 

The Dawn of the New Day 

In great tracts of this land, following the copious 
spring rains, a garment of green clothes the plains, 
and these States were divided into ranches of tre- 
mendous area, and thousands and tens of thousands 
of cattle roamed the hills and valleys. 

During most of the year little rain falls in this 
land, and it was supposed that it could never be 
turned into cultivation. But in these later years 
men have discovered that if only a little water 
can be turned upon it, the soil is rich beyond 
measure in productiveness. Therefore men are tra- 
cing the rivers and streams to their sources, and 
diverting the water so that they may pour it upon 
the soil, and the desert is rapidly being turned into 



> 

3 



o 







5 



Deserts and Gardens 87 

gardens that are blossoming as the rose. This dis- 
covery will in a short time transform the character 
of a large part of this desert. Already the wheat 
ranches of the Dakotas and the cattle ranches 
of Montana and Wyoming are being cut up into 
farms and gardens, and the rancher is being dis- 
placed by the farmer. The result will be the estab- 
lishment of a new civilization. 

The Resources of the Inland Empire 

But that we may understand something of the 
possibilities of this country, let us glance at the 
resources of some of these States. In the States 
of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, 
and Arizona there are 656,585 square miles. This 
is a territory larger than that embraced in all the 
Northern States east of the Mississippi, with the 
addition of Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Evi- 
dently, if any considerable portion of this is capable 
of cultivation it will add tremendously to the pro- 
ductive power of the United States. But the re- 
sources are not all in agriculture. 

Governor Shafroth of Colorado has recently made 
a remarkable claim for the resources of his State. 
Each year the State produces $100,000,000 in agri- 
cultural and horticultural products; $38,000,000 in 
gold, silver, and other metals; and 10,000,000 tons 
of coal. The United States Geological Survey has 
estimated that there are 371,000,000,000 tons of 
coal in the Colorado Mountains, sufficient to supply 



88 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

the world, at the present rate of consumption, for 
three hundred years. During the last fifty years 
Colorado has given the world more than a billion 
dollars' worth of metal, and apparently has un- 
limited supplies in store. It is estimated that the 
water in the mountain streams is capable of de- 
veloping between one and two million horse-power. 
There are solid mountains of the finest white 
marble, and there are millions of acres of forest, six 
millions of which are in the public reserve. 

This is a remarkable claim from an undoubtedly 
enthusiastic believer in his commonwealth, but even 
if it should be somewhat overstated, the resources 
of this single State are wonderful. 

Wyoming and Nevada 

For Wyoming it is claimed that there are ten 
million acres of land capable of irrigation, and that 
twenty thousand square miles, one-fifth of the State's 
surface, are underlaid with coal of a superior qual- 
ity; apparently unlimited supplies of natural gas; 
vast iron deposits; gold, silver, copper, and lead in 
almost every mountain range ; deposits of asphaltum, 
tin, salt, gypsum, glass-sand, mica, sulphur, natural 
soda, and other minerals in abundance. Is there not 
attraction here for millions of coming settlers ? Five 
million persons could make a good living on the 
irrigable land alone, and yet the total population of 
the State at present is only 145,965 (census 1910). 
Evidently Wyoming's day is yet to come. 



Deserts and Gardens 89 

Nevada has long been known as the Sage-brush 
State, and the name seems appropriate as one rides 
for hour after hour across its barren wastes. But 
the day is coming when this name will be out of date. 

For Nevada is really a land of fertile valleys. There are 
more than sixty of these, ranging from a few square miles 
up to five hundred square miles, more than a dozen of 
them exceeding two hundred square miles each. There 
is an area as large as New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
and Rhode Island combined that is rich, arable, and irri- 
gable land, with water available for the irrigation of per- 
haps, 6,000,000 acres of it, not more than 850,000 acres 
of which are now under cultivation. Stockmen occupy 
most of the State to-day, but the day is coming when 
these millions of acres will be populous with prosperous 
farmers, for when irrigated they are agricultural paradises. 
Six crops of alfalfa are harvested, and subtropical crops 
and fruits return small fortunes from a few acres. The 
soil is rich, the winters are mild, the summers are long, 
the sunshine almost perpetual, and the air is pure, light, 
and dry. 

Thus does Secretary Varney, of the Nevada State 
Convention, set forth the attractiveness of this State, 
which pays more than one-third of the dividends 
paid by all the gold, silver, lead, and copper mines 
of the United States. Is it any wonder that the 
population of such a State has doubled in ten years ? 
And yet there is room, for according to the census 
of 1910 there was only seven-tenths of a person to 
a square mile. But nothing like this percentage will 
ever hold true again. 



90 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Utah 

The State of Utah comprises 84,970 square miles 
of territory, 50,822,000 acres of which are land 
area and 1,779,200 acres of water area, the larger 
part of the latter being in the Great Salt Lake. Only 
a small part of this State is as yet under cultiva- 
tion, but a score of irrigation projects already con- 
templated or nearing completion will make millions 
of additional acres available for the farmer. The 
prehistoric sea which covered this State left just the 
elements to make a soil unusually rich. Horticul- 
ture and agriculture only await enterprise to rival 
the world. Moreover, the mineral output, which is 
as yet only in its infancy, has already reached 
$30,000,000 a year. 

It is not necessary to go on to describe in detail 
the resources of these other western States. The 
facts stated have been given merely as illustrations 
to indicate the wealth and the possibilities of this 
great inland empire. The story of one State is 
much the same as that of another. 

Refreshing the Thirsty Land 

In all this land the charmed word is water. 
There are millions of acres of this great empire, 
possessing all the qualities to make the most fertile 
soil, wanting only a little stream of water to make 
the desert blossom as a rose. Men have been dis- 
covering this in these last few years, and they have 



Deserts and Gardens 91 

gone back into the hills and mountains and diverted 
the precious streams to refresh this thirsty land. Mil- 
lions of dollars are being expended in many enter- 
prises. The government and private corporations 
are vying with one another in the expenditure of 
vast sums in great irrigation projects. The magni- 
tude of these tasks is second only to that of the 
Panama Canal. As a result of the projects under 
way, millions of acres, supposed to be good only for 
sage-brush or for the grazing of cattle, are being 
turned into most productive farms, and the desert 
is fast becoming a garden. As these tracts are 
opened up, hundreds of settlers are moving in, towns 
and villages are springing up, and the land is be- 
ginning to teem with life. 

In our summary we have included in this inland 
empire some States which are usually placed in 
other divisions. Utah and Nevada are usually 
classed with the Pacific States because they are on 
the other side of the Great Divide. But we have 
included them with these inland States, because in 
resources, conditions of soil and civilization, and in 
progress, they are all practically alike. We have 
also included the Dakotas, which differ much from 
the States farther west, being wheat and grazing 
country, but their stage of development and their 
conditions of life are much like those of the States 
which really belong to this Great American Desert. 
Missionary work is much the same in them all. 
They all belong to the last frontier. The descrip- 



92 The Commonwealths ajtd the Kingdom 

tions which we may give of missionary work in one 
State will fairly represent the work in another. 

The Task of the State Conventions 

The work of a State Convention in Montana must 
necessarily be different from that in Maine ; that in 
Wyoming will differ from the work in Wisconsin. 
The following incident will illustrate: 

"We'd have an awful crowd if we could have preachin* 
at the schoolhouse," said the good wife of a ranchman who 
lives twenty-five miles from the railroad and sixty miles 
from any town having more than one hundred people. 
Dinner was over, and the missionary was about to drive 
on to other districts farther inland. '' It's six years since 
we have had a sermon in this community," she continued, 
" and we've had but three in the eleven years we've lived 
here. Can't you preach for us or send some one who 
can? It seems good to see a minister again." The mis- 
sionary could not stop, for other appointments had been 
made weeks ahead. As he drove down the road he 
looked back at the lonely log house with the dirt roof, 
and saw the mother with whom he had been talking, a 
woman of intelligence and refinement, and beside her 
stood a son of eleven and a daughter of fifteen years, 
watching the minister till he disappeared down the valley. 
Only three sermons in the lifetime of that eleven-year-old 
boy! The mother had said that her mother was a Bap- 
tist; that she was not a member of any church herself, 
but she longed to have a Sunday-school and preaching 
for the good of her children; that about forty families 
live near enough to get their mail occasionally from the 
post-office, which she kept in a drygoods box with 
pigeonholes, which stood on a table in one corner of their 
living-room. 



n 
•-J 
n 

rt- 

13* 

a 

3 

!-•• 

CO 

to 

I— • 

o 




Deserts and Gardens 93 

This gives us a glimpse into one of the forty 
homes, all of which need some kind of religious 
service and most of which would welcome it. There 
are thousands of American women, girls out of 
cultured homes, who have accompanied their ven- 
turesome, pioneering husbands out into this great 
empire and amid the loneliness of those vast plains, 
without any of the great institutions of civilization, 
are trying to raise their children in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord. But they work against tre- 
mendous odds in an environment from which they 
draw no help. There are ten or twelve such com- 
munities as we have described in one quarter of a 
single county in Wyoming. One lone missionary 
pastor is trying to cover at least two thousand square 
miles about his headquarters at Hulett. He travels 
alone, on horseback, or in his open wagon, hundreds 
of miles each year in his effort to minister to 
these scattered, lonely pioneers of a new land. He 
preaches to little groups of them in their rude cabins 
or in the little schoolhouses. He visits them in 
their sickness, and buries them out on the lonely 
prairie. He is a veritable Sky Pilot to these pioneers. 
It must be evident that a missionary like this can- 
not organize many churches or build many meeting- 
houses. Rather is his a ministry to '' the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel." We are not surprised, 
therefore, in studying the annual report, to find that 
in this great State of Wyoming there are only 
thirty churches with 1,367 members, or an average 



94 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

of thirty-two members each. There are only two 
churches with more than seventy-five members — 
one at Sheridan and one at Cheyenne. These 
churches are weak in finances as well as in numbers. 
Thirteen of them have no houses of worship, and 
all of them together raised only $13,100 for their 
current expenses, or an average of only $345 each, 
or if we omit the two stronger churches the average 
would be reduced to $210 for each church. There 
are, in fact, only two self-supporting churches in the 
State. All the other churches must have some assist- 
ance if a pastor is to be maintained, and even then 
there are few cases where the pastor does not 
have to serve two or more churches. 

What the Secretary Does 

The task of the State Convention, then, is very 
plain. It must employ its Corresponding Secretary 
as a general missionary to oversee all the work of 
the denomination, except in the two independent 
churches. He must make a careful survey of the 
field, determine which churches are near enough to 
be served by one pastor, discover the outstations 
which each minister must cultivate, ascertain how 
much each church can raise for the support of a 
pastor, figure out how the meager funds at his dis- 
posal may be distributed to the best advantage. At 
the same time he must keep an eye upon the whole 
State, forecast where new towns of importance are 
to be established, and where his pioneer missionary 



Deserts and Gardens 95 

must spend part of his time. He must be in constant 
correspondence with ministers to determine the men 
who have the heroic spirit and are wilHng to en- 
dure hardships as good soldiers, for only heroic 
men can handle such fields, and even then he will 
find that most of them get uneasy and want to 
move after a year or two of service. Somehow the 
roving spirit of the pioneer gets into their blood, 
and the odds against which they work are tre- 
mendous. 

Not the least of his difficulties will be financial, for 
these little churches can raise less than $700 for the 
furtherance of State missions, and he must depend 
very largely upon the generous assistance of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society, which 
contributed last year $8,857 for the work of the 
Wyoming Convention. 

And all the time he will hear the cry of such 
mothers and little children as we have described, 
who can never attend Sunday-school nor hear a gos- 
pel sermon. He will watch the hundreds of new 
settlers moving in and spreading themselves out over 
his great State, and realizing that their children, 
growing up without religious training or privileges, 
are to be the citizens of Wyoming to-morrow, and 
he powerless to help them, his soul will cry out, 
'' Who is sufficient for these things ? How long, 
O Lord, how long?" 

Now the story of Wyoming is in outline the story 
of each one of the States in this great western 



96 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

empire. In some States, of course, like Colorado, 
there are more strong, independent churches because 
of such cities as Denver, Pueblo, and Colorado 
Springs, but outside of these cities the story of 
State missions is much the same. We do not need 
to repeat it in each case, but we may take a glance 
at the real conditions in two or three other States 
of this section. 

The Christian Church in Arizona 

Arizona is another sage-brush State, and has 
been waiting for water. But under the magic touch 
of water this long-summered desert produces five 
crops of alfalfa in one year, and blooms with roses 
every month. It is the most tropical State in the 
Union. The traveler over the Southern Pacific or 
the Santa Fe realizes that Arizona has great stretches 
of sandy deserts, but as he crosses and recrosses he 
finds new gardens springing from the deserts every- 
where. There were only 200,000 people in its great 
tracts in 1910, but that was nearly three times as 
many as in 1890, and the population will more than 
double in the present decade. 

The strictly missionary character of this State is 
indicated by the fact that there are only four self- 
supporting Baptist churches, and one or two of 
these reach this standard only by the most heroic 
effort. In this State there are thirty-four churches, 
five of them being Negro, one of them Mexican, 
and three of them Indian, while the total member- 



Deserts and Gardens 97 

ship is 1,544, an average of forty-five. There is one 
church in Phoenix of four hundred and thirty mem- 
bers, and there are five other churches with over 
seventy-five members each. These churches raised 
last year for current expenses $27,446 and for 
benevolence $6,888. 

The missionary spirit of the Convention is seen in 
the fact that six of its missionaries are Negroes. The 
churches have the missionary spirit too. Many of 
them raise their entire missionary apportionment 
and more. The church at Globe has sixty-one mem- 
bers, more than half of them non-resident. Last 
year it gave to missions more than seven dollars 
per member for the entire membership, and counting 
in other benevolence the average was $8.39 per 
member. For missions the resident members of the 
entire State averaged over six dollars per member 
and thirty dollars for current expenses. This is a 
wonderful record, and shows that the missionary 
seed sown in that State is bringing forth a splendid 
harvest. 

The missionary task of Arizona is similar to that 
which we have described in Wyoming. The Con- 
vention had under appointment last year forty mis- 
sionaries. In cooperation with the Woman's Amer- 
ican Baptist Home Mission Society, seven women 
were employed. In cooperation with the American 
Baptist Publication Society there were seven col- 
porters employed. The American Baptist Home 
Mission Society cooperated with the Convention in 



98 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

the maintenance of twenty-six other missionaries. 
These missionaries suppHed thirty mission churches 
and twelve outstations. 

The missionary work of Arizona is varied by the 
fact that there are three Indian churches, two among 
the Hopis and one among the Navajos. A mis- 
sionary of the Home Mission Society has charge of 
all these churches, but he has the assistance of sev- 
eral missionaries furnished by the Woman's Home 
Mission Society. These servants of the Kingdom 
are making sacrifices as great as any who serve in 
the far-away lands of the East. The story of their 
lives is pathetically heroic. 

Arizona is on the Mexican border, and many of 
our neighbors cross the line into the State. The 
Baptists have responded to the challenge of their 
Spanish brethren, and opened a mission among them. 
This is doubtless the forerunner of many such mis- 
sions which the Baptists of Arizona will open among 
this people. A mission to the Chinese has also been 
conducted with an ordained Chinese missionary in 
charge. 

As intimated, there are also five Negro churches, 
each owning a house of worship and each in charge 
of a missionary of the Convention. Thus this State 
Convention, in itself a missionary organization, is 
manifesting a genuine missionary spirit. 

The churches of Arizona contribute about $4,000 
for their Convention work, and, as in all other States 
of the West, receive a generous contribution from 






3 
& 

o 

c 

o 

13* 



n 

3 
cr 




Deserts and Gardens 99 

the Home Mission Society. Last year that contri- 
bution amounted to $8,100. Were it not for the 
large assistance of our national Society, how meager 
must be the work in some of these Western States ! 
Fortunately, through the medium of this Society, 
those in other sections of the land may heartily 
cooperate in the work of the State Conventions in 
these needy fields. 

The Sage-brush State 

One of the most needy fields in the nation is in 
Nevada. In this State only thirty-five per cent of the 
population are in the membership of any church, 
four per cent being Mormons, twenty-three per cent 
being Roman Catholics, and only seven per cent 
being Protestants. That is, there are only about 
five thousand, seven hundred Protestant church- 
members in the entire State. The Baptists have only 
nine churches. Owing to the pressing demands 
from many directions upon our Home Mission So- 
ciety, this field seems to have been neglected by 
the Baptists. The other large denominations have 
twice as much work as we. The Baptists of Califor- 
nia, east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, have cast 
in their lot with the Baptists of Nevada, and formed 
one Convention for the organization of Baptist work. 
They have thus added five churches to the strength 
of this httle band, making fourteen churches, with 
six preaching-stations besides. But two of these 
churches maintain no regular services, their forces 

H 



loo The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

having been almost completely dissipated. These 
little churches number about four hundred and thirty 
members, of whom three-quarters are resident. This 
gives the smallest average of any State, only thirty. 
But progress is being made, for seven of these 
churches, just one-half, have been organized in five 
years, and four meeting-houses have been built in 
that time. These churches may not be strong in 
numbers, but they certainly are strong in good 
works. They have learned the grace of giving, 
for last year their average for benevolence was 
$4.03 per member and $39.85 per member for the 
support and increase of their own work. This is 
certainly an enviable record on the part of these 
bands of disciples who are scattered abroad. 

It is plain that a great task is facing these little 
groups of earnest Christians as they endeavor to 
meet the hosts of new people who are moving in 
upon them. They cannot do it alone. They ought 
not to do it alone. As they face this task in their 
heroic spirit they must be made conscious that back 
of them is a great army of their fellow Christians, 
who are ready as reenforcements. United with 
them, we can take that State for Christ. Divided 
from us, they will fall. 

The Dakotas 

South Dakota is making changes in these days. 
Years ago it was divided into great ranches, cover- 
ing thousands of acres each, devoted to the raising 



Deserts and Gardens loi 

of wheat and grazing of cattle. But now it has been 
discovered that intensive farming is much more re- 
munerative under the modern methods of agricul- 
ture. So these ranches are being cut up into farms, 
and the tides of immigration are flowing in. This 
means an entire change in the character of the State. 
Where there were formerly dozens of people, there 
will soon be hundreds and thousands. Where were 
little ranch trading-posts, there are growing pros- 
perous towns and villages, and the towns of yester- 
day are becoming the cities of to-day. The popula- 
tion increased forty-five per cent in the decade of 
1900-1910. 

This all means a new and larger task for the Con- 
vention of South Dakota and similar States, such 
as North Dakota and Montana. They must gird 
themselves for a new day. Something of the situa- 
tion and the problem may be gained by a study of 
the report of the Baptist Convention. 

South Dakota has one hundred and nine Baptist 
churches, including thirteen Danish-Norwegian, ten 
Swedish, and fifteen German, leaving seventy-one 
American churches. Of the total, twenty- four make 
no report, which indicates their low state ; forty- four 
receive Convention aid. Not more than one-half 
of the American churches are self-supporting. 
Dropping out of consideration for the time the 
Scandinavian and German churches, which in the 
main are better off than the English-speaking 
churches, we find that only fourteen of the seventy- 



102 The Coinmonivealths and the Kingdom 

one have a membership of one hundred or over; 
two go above three hundred; five above two hun- 
dred; forty-seven churches have less than fifty mem- 
bers; thirty-one have less than twenty-five. Think 
what it means when nearly two-thirds of the Eng- 
lish-speaking churches in a State have less than fifty 
members each, and three-sevenths of them have less 
than twenty-five members. The acute struggle for 
existence can be imagined, even with State Conven- 
tion aid; while without it maintenance would not 
be possible. 

Of a total membership in these churches of 4,376, 
eight hundred and eighty-one are non-resident. The 
financial condition appears from the fact that only 
two churches raised over $3,000 for current ex- 
penses; twelve others raised between $1,000 and 
$2,000, usually but a little over $1,100; while nine- 
teen raised less than $300. Not much chance to sus- 
tain pastors in these fields, even with the outside 
aid of from $150 to $300 a year; especially since 
a small proportion of the churches have parsonages. 
The single church at A'ermillion raised as much as 
seventeen of the small churches, and the second 
strongest church, at Sioux Falls, as much as a 
dozen others. It is not strange perhaps that in such 
circumstances thirty-nine of the churches did not 
contribute to State Missions, while thirty-six gave 
nothing to Home Missions, and forty-two failed to 
take a Foreign ^Mission offering. All the more credit 
to the other churches that the average per member 



Deserts and Gardens 103 

for current expenses was $10.40; for benevolence, 
$2.60 — this including the Scandinavian churches, 
with a total membership of 7,201. The total amount 
raised for current expenses was $44,829.25; for 
State Missions, $2,830.64; to which the Home Mis- 
sion Society added $8,544.93. 

The forty-four missionary pastors preached at 
sixty-six stations, and received $11,226 from the 
State Convention, in addition to what the churches 
could raise for them. Besides the general mission- 
ary, there was a missionary to the Scandinavians, a 
general evangelist, and two pastors-at-large, to look 
after new fields and dying causes. As a result, seven 
churches were resuscitated. 

It must be remembered that many of these small 
and struggling churches occupy positions, which are 
expected to be important as the population increases. 
The Convention must work for the future, not 
simply for the present. Sudden insweeps of im- 
migration call for swift action if the Christian 
forces are to keep pace. The leader of the State 
forces has no small man's task on hand. The State 
Convention must supply the buoyancy, the vision, 
the plans, and in no small degree the funds, to keep 
the cause alive and in progression. 

The Realm of the False Prophet 

If now we survey the situation in one other State 
we shall understand fairly well the problem in them 
all. Utah is peculiar unto itself. As you study the 



104 ^^^ Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

situation there, the first thing that impresses you 
is that, despite its marvelous resources, it is in- 
creasing more slowly in population than any other 
Western State. While Washington increased during 
the last decade one hundred and twenty per cent, 
Idaho one hundred and one per cent, Nevada ninety- 
three per cent. North Dakota eighty per cent, and 
Arizona sixty-six per cent, Utah increased only 
thirty- four per cent. Ask the reason why? Let 
Secretary Varney reply : " Because while the State 
seems a Canaan to the Mormon and a Mecca to the 
impoverished immigrant, it appears closely akin to 
a Sodom and Gomorrah to the enlightened Gentile, 
and from it he longs to flee without any intervention 
of the Almighty.'' 

Nowhere else in the Union is missionary work so 
difficult as in this State of the Prophet. The five 
great Christian denominations have one hundred 
and five churches with fifty-two outstations, and in 
a population of 375,000 there are only 7,000 mem- 
bers in these Christian churches. The Baptists were 
the last to undertake work in this needy field, and 
we stand at the foot of the list in the result of work 
accomplished. In the last twenty-two years the 
Home Mission Society, in addition to all the sacri- 
fice which has been made by the heroic people who 
have stood upon the firing-line, has invested $132,000 
in mission work in Utah. As a result, we have 
only eleven churches with three missions and a 
membership of 1,100. We have made practically 



Deserts and Gardens 105 

no advance in five years, the number of churches, 
missions, and members being practically the same in 
1907 and 1912. There has been a marked increase 
in the value of church property in this time, three 
buildings having been erected, including the fine 
building in Salt Lake City. 

What are we to do in face of such discouraging 
results from over twenty years of work? Shall 
we abandon the field and declare that nothing can 
be done? But Mormonism furnishes one of the 
greatest problems in America to-day. It is not a 
problem of one State only, but of several States. 
In Utah forty-nine per cent of the membership of 
religious organizations is Mormon; in Idaho, forty- 
three per cent; in Wyoming, twenty-one per cent; 
in Arizona, thirteen per cent; in Nevada, seven per 
cent. In at least three of these States the Mormons 
hold already the balance of power politically, and 
are using it for the benefit of their church. 

It is plain that if the problem of Mormonism is 
to be attacked at all successfully, it must be attacked 
now, but it cannot be left to the eleven little bands 
of Christians who make up the fellowship of the 
Utah Convention. It is a problem of the whole 
denomination. If it is to be solved, it must be 
solved by all the denominations, as they stand 
shoulder to shoulder to face the forces of the False 
Prophet. The members of the Utah Convention 
have a task sufficient for their strength in main- 
taining the work of their own little churches. They 



io6 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

must have the support of all their brethren in their 
heroic efforts to meet this fearful national evil. 
Only as all the Christian denominations hear the 
challenge of the hour and unite their forces under 
the wisest leadership can the menacing march of the 
Prophet be stayed and our nation be saved from a 
fearful curse. 

We have thus drawn in outline a picture of the 
various kinds of work being done by our State Con- 
ventions in this great inland empire. Is it strange 
that the men who have this work at heart and in 
charge feel that there is no greater and more im- 
portant task in the world to-day? God speed them 
on their way! 



THE LAND OF THE SETTING SUN 



V 

THE LAND OF THE SETTING SUN 

The Rocky Mountains are the great natural 
divide of the continent. The streams that gather 
upon their summits flow eastward to the Atlantic 
and westward to the Pacific. The civilization that 
is building upon their eastern slopes finds its outlet 
in the Eastern States that face the Atlantic. But 
beyond the Rocky Mountains there lies another 
vast empire that finds its outlet in the mighty west- 
ern sea. This new empire is just in the making. 
By reason of its location and its natural resources, 
it is destined to be one of the richest and most 
powerful sections of the great Republic. 

The Extent and Resources of the West 

The extent of this empire can be appreciated only 
as one has traversed its immense distances. The 
total length of California, for example, is 775 miles 
and its width 200 miles. It comprises an area of 
153,650 square miles, which gives it a territory 
greater than the combined area of New England, 
plus New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. The State 
of Oregon has 96,030 square miles, giving it an 
area as large as New York, Pennsylvania, and 

109 



no The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Delaware, while Washington alone is larger than 
all New England. The seven States sloping to the 
Pacific, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, 
Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, have an area of 717,000 
square miles, which is greater than the combined 
area of eleven of the great Middle States — Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, 
Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, and South Da- 
kota. It is a vast country that awaits the develop- 
ment of this twentieth century. 

The resources of these Western States are just 
beginning to be estimated. No one can yet reckon 
their ultimate contribution to the wealth and pros- 
perity of America. Southern California produced 
in 1912, $4,250,000 of gold, silver, and precious 
stones; $33,000,000 of oranges, grapefruit, and 
lemons; $37,500,000 of petroleum; and $100,000,000 
of manufactured products. 

The manufacturing industries of Oregon also 
produced last year $100,000,000 worth of wealth. 
The greatest of these is the lumber business, which 
amounts to $30,000,000 per year. But Oregon is 
primarily an agricultural State, with its rich soil 
and temperate climate. In 1912 the agricultural 
products amounted to over $126,000,000, and only 
a small part of the State is as yet under cultivation. 

The eastern part of Washington and the northern 
part of Idaho form the *' Inland Empire." This 
tract of 150,000 square miles, larger than Minnesota 
and Iowa, is hemmed in between four ranges of 



The Land of the Setting Sun iii 

mountains, and has one natural outlet to the Pacific 
Ocean, through the Columbia River. This is one of 
the richest sections of the nation. In 1912 the grain 
sold for $102,000,000; the live stock for $27,000,000; 
the lumber for $23,000,000; while the mineral out- 
put exceeded $100,000,000. These five industries 
added $250,000,000 to the wealth of the nation in one 
year. The greatest asset of this Inland Empire is 
its undeveloped water-power. Hydraulic engineers 
estimate this to equal 4,000,000 electrical horse- 
power. When this water is turned into the wheel- 
pits of manufacture and then distributed out over 
the rich soil, what vast piles of wealth will be 
created! These resources are awaiting the in- 
genuity and the magic touch of man. No one can 
dream of the wealth which this western land is to 
add to our nation in the days and years to come. 

A Voice from the Past 

It is a bit interesting now to read the opinions of 
some of the w^ise men of a half-century ago. At the 
time of the signing of the Ashburton Treaty, in 
1842, Senator McDuffie expressed his opinion of the 
Oregon Territory, which embraced Oregon, Wash- 
ington, Idaho, and Montana. 

What is the character of this country? As I under- 
stand it, there are seven hundred miles on the western 
side of the Rocky Mountains that are uninhabitable, where 
rain never falls. . . Of what use would the land be for 
agricultural purposes? I would not for that purpose give 



112 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

a pinch of snuff for the whole territory. I wish the Rocky 
Mountains were an impassable barrier. If there were an 
embankment of even five feet to be removed, I would 
not consent to expend five dollars to remove it and 
enable our population to go there. I thank God for his 
mercy in placing the Rocky Mountains there. 

Opinions change with the passing of the years. 

The Population of the West 

This is a new country. With the exception of a 
few old centers, this development has come entirely 
within the last generation. The population is small 
as yet, but it is growing with unparalleled rapidity. 
Nowhere else in the nation has the population ever 
increased with such force. The census reports of 
yesterday do not tell the story of to-day. 

The census of 1910 gave California a population 
of 2,377,549, or about the same as the city of 
Chicago or the State of New Jersey. But Cali- 
fornia has an area as large as New Jersey with 
New England, New York, and Ohio added. The 
combined population of these States is 23,623,535. 
The population of California is comparatively small 
as yet, but the significant thing is the rapidity with 
which it is growing. It is claimed that the popula- 
tion of southern California has doubled in five years. 
Cities are multiplying, and the vacant land is being 
taken up. The population of Oregon increased 
sixty-two per cent from 1900 to 1910; Nevada, 
ninety-three per cent; Idaho, one hundred and one 



The Land of the Setting Sun 113 

per cent; Washington, one hundred and twenty per 
cent, leading all the States of the Union. 

The development of the cities has been the most 
marked feature of this wonderful growth. Spokane 
grew from 36,848 to 104,402; Portland, from 
90,426 to 207,214; Seattle, from 80,671 to 237,194; 
Los Angeles, from 102,479 to 319,198; and these 
and many other cities continue their growth in the 
same or in greater ratio. We are destined to have 
some of our greatest cities upon this western coast. 
Los Angeles is dreaming of a million people in 
1920, and announces that in the winter of 1911-1912 
four miles of houses were built in four months. 

All these western States are living now in ex- 
pectation of the opening of the Panama Canal. 
They are anticipating the advent of millions of 
people from southern and eastern Europe, thou- 
sands of whom are now buying their tickets upon 
the instalment plan. These people, who are born 
to a soil and a climate that are similar, are expected 
to reverse the habits of their predecessors in the 
eastern States, and to scatter themselves out over 
the fertile land. With characteristic energy, these 
various States are making elaborate preparation to 
receive these millions of strangers. 

What the railroads think of the future of this 
country can be estimated from the rapidity with 
which they are extending their lines and investing 
their money. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. 
Paul has, during the last five years, built an entirely 



114 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 



new transcontinental line, and is now spending 
$8,000,000 to build branches and electrify its west- 
ern division. The Northern Pacific is spending 
$5,000,000 in the same way, while the Great North- 
ern will spend $8,000,000 in electrifying its line from 
Spokane to Seattle. The assessed valuation of the 
railroads in Idaho has increased three hundred and 
forty-three per cent in five years. 

Now Is THE Accepted Time 

We have thus dwelt at length upon the wealth 
and growth of this magic land, that the reader may 
understand how vast is the missionary task and 
how great the Christian opportunity. When John 
M. Peck began his wonderful missionary career in 
the valley of the Mississippi, he prophesied that 
that valley was to be the center of a great civiliza- 
tion some day, but that if it was ever to be made 
Christian it must be made so at the beginning. 
The successors of John Peck have been saying for 
years that the empire by the Pacific is to be the 
center of a wonderful civilization some day, but it 
is equally as true that if that civilization of to- 
morrow is to be Christian, the foundations that are 
put in to-day must be Christian too. 

The Early Missionary Work 

Westward the Star of the Kingdom takes its way. 
The story of the early missionary work in that 
western land is one of the most thrilling that has 




O 

B 



o 
o 

I 

CO 



The Land of the Setting Sun 115 

ever been written. The outline is familiar to every 
schoolboy, for he knows how Marcus Whitman 
saved Oregon. That hero of the Northwest was 
only one among a multitude of the same spirit who 
endured everything that man could suffer to plant 
the Cross of Christ by the Stars and Stripes in that 
new land. Their privations and sufferings were 
greater far than those endured by their worthy 
predecessors in the land of the Atlantic. Some day 
that history will be written by a real historian, 
and it will be one of the most thrilling volumes that 
has ever been penned. 

It was in 1837 that Marcus Whitman led his 
caravan of nearly a thousand souls from the valley 
of the Mississippi to the shores of the Pacific, and 
the great emigration was fairly begun. It was not 
until 1845 that the American Baptist Home Mission 
Society sent its first two missionaries into that far 
western land. Ezra Fisher was a New England 
boy, trained at Amherst College and Newton Theo- 
logical Seminary. Hezekiah Johnson was born in 
Maryland, and had his early experience in Ohio and 
Iowa. These two men v/ere commissioned in 1845, 
and were each allowed $400 for an outfit and as- 
sured of a salary of $200 a year. They began their 
long journey in the spring, and it was November 
before they reached The Dalles on the banks of the 
Columbia River, and December when they came 
into the beautiful valley of the Willamette in 
Oregon. 



ii6 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 



But they were not in season to be present at the 
formation of the First Baptist Church west of the 
Rockies, for this had been organized the year be- 
fore in the house of Deacon David Lenox, who had 
brought with him from the East enough Baptists 
to organize a church. He himself Uved at West 
Union, not far from the present city of Portland, 
but when Ezra Fisher became the second pastor of 
this church, he found '' only two of its members 
within twenty-five miles of the place of organiza- 
tion, so that all efficiency by church organization 
is lost." It was in small beginnings like these that 
the Christian work in Oregon began. These two 
missionaries and their successors traveled far and 
wide through the almost unbroken forests and across 
the great plains in search of little groups of pros- 
pectors to whom they might preach the good news 
of Jesus. Little churches sprang up here and there 
as men became responsive to the message. 

It is especially worthy of note that it was these 
first two missionaries who began the work of Chris- 
tian education on the Pacific Coast. Johnson, who 
was a man without education himself, opened a 
school in his new meeting-house at Oregon City 
within four years of his arrival on the coast, and 
three years later it was enlarged into Oregon Col- 
lege. At this time there were only one hundred 
and forty Baptists on the north Pacific Coast. Out 
of this school grew McMinnville College, the present 
Baptist institution of the Northwest. 



The Land of the Setting Sun 117 

Missions and the Gold Strike 

The Christian work in California began with the 
'* gold fever " in 1849. The Home Mission Society 
sent Rev. O. C. Wheeler, pastor at Jersey City, New 
Jersey, as missionary to San Francisco. He adopted 
a very modern route of travel, and went via the 
Isthmus of Panama, arriving in California in Feb- 
ruary, 1849. Fie organized the first Protestant 
church in California; in August he dedicated the 
first meeting-house; in October, administered the 
first baptism; and in December, opened the first 
public school in that great State. 

It was not easy to do religious work in California 
at that time. The fever possessed every one, even 
the ministers. Mr. Wheeler reported that in his 
sixteen months of service he registered the names 
of forty-six accredited Baptist ministers, who passed 
through San Francisco on their way to the gold- 
fields, but not one of them could be induced to stop 
even a single day to help him in his work. So many 
ministers went down from Oregon that no session 
of the Willamette Association could be held that 
year. 

The " spirit of '49 " set its stamp upon that sec- 
tion of California so efifectually that it has never 
been erased. It has made religious work exceed- 
ingly difficult ever since, and it is almost impossible 
even to-day to get a respectable hearing for the 
Christian message in the '49 towns. San Francisco 



ii8 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

has to-day by far the smallest percentage of Prot- 
estant church-members of any city in America. It 
is all traced back to the blight which struck the 
Christian church in those fever days of '49. 



The First Church in Washington 

Washington was opened by the pioneers much 
later than Oregon or California. It was ten years 
later (1859) that the first Baptist church was or- 
ganized at Mound Prairie, fifteen miles from Olym- 
pia. It was organized on October twenty-fifth in 
a most interesting way. T. J. Harper had come 
of an old-school Baptist family in Tennessee. He 
was intensely missionary in spirit, and when he 
found some Baptist people at Mound Prairie who 
had no church nor pastor, he held services himself, 
in which several were converted. He was an ex- 
treme Landmarker, and he did not dare organize a 
church himself, so he sent his recently converted 
son to the Cornwallis Association in Oregon, a dis- 
tance of two hundred miles, for help. Two men 
were appointed, and funds raised to defray their 
expenses. Their report is most interesting. 

After several days* travel north, we arrived in the 
vicinity of Puget Sound. The brethren at this place re- 
ceived us like brethren, and their religious appearance 
fully met our expectations. We labored with them for 
six days. During that time we constituted a church with 
six members, baptized five into their fellowship, and 
ordained Bro. T. J. Harper to the work of the ministry. 



The Land of the Setting Sun 119 

This brother is calculated to do much good, and has a 
good report of all who know him. We view this as an 
inviting field for Baptist labor. 

This first church at Mound Prairie survived for 
eight years, and then disbanded in 1867, owing to 
the scattering of its members, incident to the Indian 
War and the mining interests. 

We have thus related the beginnings of Baptist 
work in the three Coast States. The annals of Idaho 
are not yet published, so that the history of mission- 
ary beginnings in that State are not yet available. 

The Organized Missionary Work 

The organized missionary work of the Baptists on 
the North Coast dates from 1877, when '' The Bap- 
tist Missionary and Educational Society " was or- 
ganized, comprising in its field of operations Oregon, 
Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. Earlier 
efforts had been made in both Washington and 
Oregon, but differences of opinion had developed, 
and a general spirit of apathy and discouragement 
had settled upon the churches. They were so 
widely scattered, were so far separated from their 
brethren of the East, the demands of their field were 
so discouragingly burdensome, that the little bands 
of Christians became disheartened. But with the 
organization of this new society, new hopes were 
engendered and a new spirit began to possess them. 
A new day was dawning. 

At the next meeting in 1878 the name was changed 



120 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 



to '' The Baptist Convention of the North Pacific 
Coast/' For eight progressive and prosperous years 
this continued as the representative and missionary 
organization of the Baptists of the Northwest. 
Then serious differences of opinion arose. Perhaps 
it is not to be wondered at when the great extent 
of territory is considered and the many kinds of 
Baptists who made up the constituency. The dif- 
ferences resuhed in the dissolution of '' The Bap- 
tist Convention of the North Pacific Coast" and 
the organization of the Oregon Baptist State Con- 
vention, the Convention of Eastern Washington and 
Northern Idaho, and the Northwest Baptist Conven- 
tion, embracing western Washington and British 
Columbia. This division of fields and form of or- 
ganization has remained until the present, except 
that the Baptists of British Columbia withdrew in 
1897 to form their own Convention. The churches 
of southern Idaho formed the Idaho Baptist Con- 
vention in 1909, there having been a Baptist Asso- 
ciation in Idaho since 1879. 

The Baptists of California organized their Con- 
vention in 1852, only three years after the organiza- 
tion of the first church in San Francisco. They 
wrought together for nearly forty years. Then, 
owing to the rapid development of the State, and 
the fact that the Techachapi Mountains and Desert 
divided the State into two distinct parts and pre- 
sented an insurmountable barrier to the best prog- 
ress, the Baptists of southern California withdrew 



The Land of the Setting Sun 121 

in 1891 and formed the Southern California Baptist 
Convention. These six Conventions now cover the 
entire Pacific Coast field, and the Baptists of that 
great country have perfected a splendid group of 
organizations for the development of the country 
and the establishment of the Christian church. 
These people have much in common, and for the 
consideration of their mutual interests they have 
organized the Pacific Coast Baptist Conference, 
which meets triennially, the third session having 
been held at Sacramento in 1913. This Conference 
cements together these various bodies, and furnishes 
them opportunity for discussing their common in- 
terests. 

The Changed Conditions 

The character of the work which is done on these 
western fields has changed vastly since Fisher and 
Johnson and Wheeler began their pioneer service in 
that new country. The missionary no longer has to 
ride hundreds of miles on horseback through unbroken 
forests and across trackless deserts. He is no longer 
in danger from starvation in the desert nor from 
assaults of the Indians. The railroads, managed in 
a remarkably progressive and competitive way, have 
covered this country with a network of rails, and 
new lines are being constantly extended. There are, 
of course, hundreds of square miles which are not 
yet penetrated and where the shriek of the iron 
horse has not yet been heard. But the railroads are 



122 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

following the prospectors and the lumber men and 
the settlers with wonderful rapidity. The mission- 
ary still has frontier work to do and many long trips 
back from the railroad, but he knows little of the 
hardship of his predecessor of a half-century ago. 

The principal missionary task of these western 
Conventions now is to enter the new settlements, 
where small groups of immigrants have located, 
gather the people for service, organize new churches, 
furnish them with pastors, and nourish and sustain 
them until they may become independent and self- 
supporting. 

This is a long, slow, discouraging task. The new 
settlers are engrossed in their work of subduing a 
new country, building homes, and reestablishing 
themselves for life. All associations that bound 
them to a Christian church are broken, if indeed 
such ever existed in their former homes. They 
have little time and thought for the Christian life or 
church. Moreover, the first settlers are of an un- 
easy, roving disposition. They are not contented 
to remain long in one place, and sell their new be- 
longings as soon as they can find a purchaser, and 
move on to new fields. This makes the task of 
the missionary difficult. It is hard to find a re- 
sponsive, dependable constituency for the nucleus of 
his new church. 

This very characteristic of the first constituency in 
a new country makes it difficult for the Convention 
to determine where to locate new churches. Fields 



The Land of the Setting Sun 123. 

often look promising and give evidence of per- 
manency, but in a few years conditions may entirely 
change, business may die out, and the town almost 
completely disappear. Churches that have been 
established are deserted, the doors closed, and the 
property is thrown back upon the Convention, use- 
less and unsalable. In this way, years of earnest 
effort and large sums of good money seem to be 
wasted. Yet no snap judgment must be passed. 
During its years of activity, forces may have been 
generated that will yield returns far beyond the 
investment. The work of a Convention must not be 
estimated by these abandoned fields, which are the 
heritage of every Convention that has tried to keep 
pace with the development of a new country. 

The process of development to self-support is 
usually slow. Members are not added rapidly. Peo- 
ple do not eagerly join an institution where heavy 
burdens must be borne, and those who are settling 
a new country have use for all their ready money. 
The Conventions are under necessity, therefore, of 
assisting many churches for long periods of years, 
yet in western Washington, for example, forty 
churches have become self-supporting in ten years. 

Character of the Work 

The character of the work depends very much 
upon the character of the life of the people. In 
southern California, for instance, the people live 
very largely in towns and small cities. It is an 



124 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

agricultural country, but the farms and vineyards 
and groves are large, and those who own them and 
those who work them live for the most part in 
villages. The problem of the Southern California 
Convention is therefore that of establishing town 
churches. It will probably never have the problem 
of the country church. The task here is to find the 
qualified men and the money sufficient to open new 
churches in the rapidly growing towns. These 
churches once established will become self-support- 
ing, however, much more rapidly than the churches 
in the open country. 

In Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, on the other 
hand, with their rich farming lands, there are cer- 
tain to be more open-country churches. The con- 
stituency is scattered over a much wider territory, 
and it is more difficult to interest the farmer, with 
his independent spirit and method of life, in an 
institution which is of necessity at a distance from 
his home. Here self-support becomes a much longer 
task, even though the farmers may be possessed of 
much larger means. 

Urban and Rural 

The tendency on the Coast, as in all other parts of 
the country, is toward the rapid increase of the 
urban population. In Oregon ten years ago sixty 
per cent of the people lived on farms or in the open 
country, while forty per cent lived in cities or towns 
of more than 300 people. To-day the percentages 



The Land of the Setting Sun 125 

are exactly reversed. The last census gave the urban 
population of western Washington as 507,579, v^^hile 
the rural population v^as only 299,539. 

On the other hand, there are large rural popula- 
tions in these northern States which have no re- 
ligious privileges whatever. A religious survey was 
recently made of the 2,266 school districts of 
Oregon. Returns were received from 1,141, about 
one-half. Of these, thirty per cent are reported 
as having churches and Sunday-schools, and eight 
per cent as having churches alone, and another seven 
per cent as having Sunday-schools. There were 
fifty- four per cent of the districts reported which 
have neither churches nor Sunday-schools, and it is 
presumed that seventy-five per cent of the districts 
not reporting are in the same condition. Moreover, 
in a large number of the districts reporting churches 
and schools, services are held only occasionally and 
pastors seldom give more than a fraction of their 
time to any one field, which is fortunate enough to 
have the regular services of a pastor at all. In 
western Washington there are 70,000 people who 
never have any religious services within their reach, 
and not less than 120,000 who are without the privi- 
leges of evangelical religion. It is evident that for 
a long time to come there must be a large amount of 
pioneer missionary work if the civilization in this 
new empire is to be Christian. 

This pioneer work must be done mostly by district 
missionaries, who can cover large fields and make a 



126 The Comrnonzvealths and the Kingdom 

circuit of the new settlements, perform a ministry 
of evangelism, and organize little churches where 
there is any prospect of permanency. The Execu- 
tive Boards of all these Conventions report that 
their great need is for funds to employ such mis- 
sionaries, men who possess the spirit of the pioneers 
and who count not their lives dear unto themselves. 
It is a shame that the Christianization of that great 
coming civilization should be retarded for the lack 
of money. The figures which we have given show 
the immense wealth that is being produced in that 
new land. What if a little of it could be used for 
Christianizing the producers ! 

Progress on Every Hand 

But progress is being made at the great task as 
the reports of the Conventions clearly show. In 
southern California eight new churches have been 
organized in the last five years, nine missions estab- 
lished for the people of foreign tongues, and several 
for people of English speech, and thirty church 
buildings have been erected at a cost of $318,000. 
In the same period of time eleven new churches have 
been organized in Oregon, and twenty-seven houses 
of worship built at a cost of $150,000. 

Northern California shows a most remarkable 
Baptist development. The earthquake seems to 
have marked the beginning of a period of great 
progress. An interesting comparison has been made 
between the period of seven years preceding the 



The Land of the Setting San 127 

earthquake and the period of seven years which 
have followed the disaster. The population has in- 
creased forty-five per cent since 1906. Comparing 
these two periods we find that the missionary force 
of the Convention has been increased forty-five per 
cent; the number of churches organized has in- 
creased ninety per cent; the number of meeting- 
houses erected has increased one hundred and five 
per cent; the baptisms have increased one hundred 
and sixteen per cent; the contributions to all mis- 
sions have increased forty-seven per cent, and to 
State missions one hundred and forty-one per cent, 
and for current church expenses seventy-seven per 
cent; the value of church property has increased one 
hundred and forty-seven per cent. The per capita 
giving for current expenses in 1906 was an average 
of $12.76 per member; in 1912 it was $18.37. ^^^ 
giving for missions increased in the same time from 
$2.45 to $2.92 per member. 

Remarkable Development in Idaho 

The Convention of Southern Idaho has been or- 
ganized only five years, but there has been a phe- 
nomenal development in that time. It would be dif- 
ficult to match it in any part of the Kingdom. In 
these five years the number of churches has in- 
creased fifty-two per cent, the church buildings 
thirty per cent, the parsonages one hundred per cent, 
the value of property eighty-nine per cent, the church 
membership ninety-one per cent, the contributions 



128 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

for all purposes two hundred and thirty-one per cent, 
the contributions for State missions three hundred 
and eighty-two per cent, for foreign missions one 
hundred and thirty-three per cent, for home mis- 
sions one hundred and ten per cent, or an average 
of two hundred and sixteen per cent for all mis- 
sions. The number of missionary workers has in- 
creased one hundred and thirty-three per cent. If 
an average were struck between these different per- 
centages, it would seem to give the approximate de- 
velopment in five years. That average is found to 
be one hundred and twenty-five per cent. This is 
remarkable, and shows what can be done when 
enthusiastic churches put generous contributions in 
the hands of ably managed Convention Boards. But 
Idaho is the only State of the West where Baptists 
are keeping pace with the increase of the population 
and the development of the country. The great 
problem in the western country is how the religious 
forces may keep pace with the marvelous material 
development of the land. 

The Foreigner on the Coast 

In the chapter on ** The New Americans" we shall 
consider the relation of immigration to the mission 
of the Christian church. The problem on the Coast 
has its peculiar features. For many years they have 
faced an aspect of immigration which is peculiar to 
the Coast, the immigration from Asia. They are now 
living in anticipation of the opening of the Panama 




CO 

O 

o 

Pi 

o 

g 

1—1 
o 



d 



The Land of the Setting Sun 129 

Canal, when they expect tens of thousands of people 
from southern Europe to land on their shores. The 
preparations which the Christian churches are ma- 
king to welcome these newcomers indicate most com- 
mendable interest and zeal. They plan to establish 
receiving stations at the ports of entry, and to place 
qualified missionaries in charge. They intend to 
cooperate with the government in helping the 
strangers to find their new homes and employment. 
They expect to have missionaries to preach to 
these people in their own tongues. No such care- 
ful planning has ever been done in advance by 
religious forces, and if the churches only support 
their Conventions many of the dangers which are 
facing Christianity in the East may be avoided. 

It cannot be claimed, however, that the Baptists 
of the Coast have as yet undertaken any very seri- 
ous work of this character. They have been so en- 
grossed with the overwhelming task of giving the 
gospel to the thousands of native Americans who 
are pouring into their country, that they have al- 
most forgotten the brother of foreign speech who 
has come among them. California leads with the 
amount of work undertaken. There are six Swedish, 
two German, two Finnish, two Danish-Norwegian 
churches, and one each for the Chinese and Rus- 
sians. There are also missionaries to the Danes and 
Letts. The Northern California Convention is thus 
conducting work in twelve languages. Southern 
California follows with eight missionaries among 



130 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

the Spaniards, three among the Swedes, two among 
the Russians, and one to the Syrians. In Oregon 
there are six Swedish and seven German churches, 
and one ItaHan missionary. This sums up nearly all 
the work now being attempted by Baptists on the 
Coast. The call has come none too soon for the 
future interest of that great empire. 

A Neglected Opportunity 

One cannot study the religious problem on the 
Pacific Coast without reflecting on the tremendous 
opportunity among the Orientals which the Christians 
are neglecting. The foreigner at a distance wears a 
halo about his head, but the Jew in New York is a 
'' Sheenie," the Italian in Boston is a '' Dago," and 
the Chinaman in San Francisco is a " Chink." Close 
at hand these people lose their attractiveness, and 
while we spend millions to evangelize their brethren 
abroad we spend pennies to evangelize them at our 
door. The Christian church is losing a great oppor- 
tunity in its failure to give the Orientals on the 
Coast the gospel of Christ. A missionary adminis- 
trator, with years of experience in China and then 
other years on the Pacific Coast, affirmed to the 
Home Missions Council in 1912 that not more than 
one Chinamen in ten, in the Coast State where he 
lives, has had the gospel brought to him in any ade- 
quate way. The Council was informed that in an- 
other Coast State there are twenty-seven counties 
with an average of two hundred Chinamen each, with- 



The Land of the Setting Sun 131 

out any Christian work of any kind being done for 
them. The Standing Committee of the Home Mis- 
sions Council declared in November, 1912, that " by 
recent surveys some fourteen thousand Chinese and 
about the same number of Japanese are found to be 
without any Christian opportunities." 

The Oriental in America is easily reached by the 
gospel. It is believed that nearly ten thousand 
Chinese and Japanese have been baptized in Amer- 
ica, and that there are to-day at least 2,000 Chinese 
and 2,600 Japanese who are members of Christian 
churches in America. If we could permeate with 
the gospel any considerable number of these Orien- 
tals, we should create a returning missionary force 
vastly more potent than all the American mission- 
aries whom we can send to the Orient. 

The Baptists on the Pacific Coast, who are making 
unprecedentedly large contributions to foreign mis- 
sions, ought also greatly to increase the funds of 
their State Conventions in order that, while they are 
waiting for the foreigner from Europe, they might 
undertake at once a vigorous work for the foreigner 
from Asia, who is already with them. 



VI 



THE NEW AMERICANS 



I 



VI 

THE NEW AMERICANS 

It IS not our purpose in this chapter to treat the 
subject of American Immigration in any large or 
comprehensive way. So many books upon this sub- 
ject are now appearing that there is no necessity of 
going over the ground here. A hst of books deal- 
ing with this subject will be found in an Appendix. 
It is our purpose only to show the relation of the 
Christian church to this aspect of American life, 
and to indicate what the State Conventions are doing 
to solve the problems. 

The spirit of migration is inherent in humanity. 
Long before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees men 
had been going out to seek a country not their own. 
Men of the more adventuresome spirit have always 
been seeking for new worlds to conquer. By their 
prowess and progress the world little by little has 
been subdued. The motives which have led men 
out have been as varied as the lands to which they 
have gone. But the overwhelming motive in all the 
migrations of humanity has been the desire for a 
better living under more ideal conditions. Other 
motives have appeared from time to time, as in the 
case of the Pilgrims, but the dominating motive 

135 



136 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

has always been the desire for better conditions of 
Hfe. 

The Early Immigration 

Ever since the Mayflower plowed her way through 
Massachusetts Bay and landed her precious cargo 
on Plymouth Rock, this land of ours has been the 
haven of refuge for men of the Old World who were 
seeking for a new opportunity and a second chance 
in life. First they came from England and Scotland. 
Men of purpose and of strong convictions were 
they for the most part ; men of earnest faith in God, 
and so surely did they lay the foundations of this 
nation that they have remained unshaken through 
all the changes of these changing centuries. They 
were followed by shiploads of starving men from 
the Emerald Isle. Wendell Phillips once jocosely 
remarked that the failure of the potato crop in Ire- 
land in 1848 was the greatest blow that ever struck 
the United States. No land was ever so depleted 
of its strong men, in contributing its life to Amer- 
ica, and no people have ever entered so completely 
into the political life of the nation as have the Irish- 
men. Every member of Congress from Connecticut 
this year (191 3) is an Irishman, and many of our 
cities like New York and Boston are controlled and 
dominated by them. If Irish immigration were to 
have continued at the rate of a few years ago, there 
can be little question that they would have dominated 
the poHtical life of America. But the Irish im- 



13 



O 

3 
3 



03 



XT 
W 



o 

3 

03 
03 



3 

n 

O 
O 




The New Americans 137 

migration has largely fallen off because of the im- 
provement of material conditions in Ireland. 

Simultaneously with these men from Ireland a 
multitude of our Teutonic cousins came from the 
Fatherland of Germany. These men of the soil, 
driven from home by the high taxes and low wages, 
passed into the great agricultural States of the mid- 
dle West, and have literally made those common- 
wealths. It is supposed by many that the domi- 
nating influence in America is Anglo-Saxon, but of 
our ninety-six million people only about nineteen 
millions are of Anglo-Saxon descent, while eighteen 
millions are of German blood. The " Fatherland " 
has contributed almost as much to the development 
of America as has the '' mother country." 

The Vikings were doubtless the first to set foot 
upon the Atlantic shores of this American continent. 
Their hardy descendants from Norway and Sweden 
have been coming to this country in great numbers 
for many years. Most of them followed the Ger- 
mans into the new States in the Mississippi Valley 
and beyond. They have been hardy builders of a 
new civilization, and as God-fearing men have con- 
tributed largely to the strength of the Christian 
church in this nation. 

The Turning of the Tide 

In these later years the tide has changed its 
course. Conditions in the northern states of 
Europe have greatly improved, and there is not the 



138 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

same incentive to leave home. But in southern and 
eastern Europe civihzation has moved slowly. The 
soil is worn out, wages are low, taxes are abnor- 
mally high, the cost of great standing armies is an 
almost intolerable burden, in many sections religious 
persecution maintains the spirit of the Dark Ages, 
and men by the myriads are going out in search of a 
better country. America to them is the golden shore, 
and they are coming to us by the tens of thousands 
every month. Austrians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Dal- 
matians, Finns, Greeks, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, 
Letts, Montenegrins, Poles, Russians, Servians, 
Turks are coming: men out of every town and 
hamlet of southern and eastern Europe. Many of 
the towns of Italy and other lands have been so 
depleted of strong men that there are not enough 
left to do the necessary manual work of the village. 

A Mighty Army 

We read of the shiploads that are landed every 
day at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
and Montreal. But these people move in upon us 
so steadily that we scarcely appreciate their coming. 
It is an unceasing stream that is pouring itself into 
our national life. These people are marching in at 
the rate of two for every minute in every week, at 
the rate of a million or a million and a quarter every 
year. 

During the last ten years over ten million 
people have landed upon our shores and entered 



The New Americans 139 

our national life. What does it mean to our nation 
to have ten million men of alien heritage, of alien 
civilization, of alien ideals thrust into our life in 
one decade? We cannot comprehend what ten mil- 
lion persons really mean. This is a population 
greater than the population of all New England 
plus New Jersey and Delaware. It is greater than 
the population of seven of the largest States of the 
South. It is greater than the population of the 
fourteen largest States of the West. If these were 
all congregated in one city, as fortunately they are 
not, they would make a city twice the size of New 
York, or four times the size of Chicago, or fourteen 
times the size of the city of Boston. What does 
it mean to have fourteen cities the size of Boston 
taken up out of the heart of Europe and set down 
in the heart of America in ten years? It certainly 
means a new x^merica to-morrow. It is impossible 
that so many diverse elements should enter into our 
life without materially changing it. The most seri- 
ous aspect of it all is that these people are apparently 
coming faster than we can mold them, faster than 
we can digest them. 

We Must Have Them 

But we must have them. They are the people 
who are helping to make America rich and great. 
They furnish the brawn and the muscle for our 
developing civilization. They work our mines ; they 
roll our steel ; they sink our foundations ; they erect 



140 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

our buildings; they construct our railroads; they 
make our shoes, our cotton and woolen goods, our 
hardware, our furniture; they practically feed and 
clothe and house us. We begrudge them the wages 
we pay them, but it is they who are making us rich. 
Complaint is sometimes made that they force the 
native people out of their employment. They do, 
by forcing them out from beneath and up into 
higher grades of labor. There are not enough so- 
called Americans in America to do a tithe of Amer- 
ica's manual work. It is the foreigner who is ma- 
king America possible. Complaint is also made 
against them that they take too much American 
money back to Europe. They do take large sums 
every year, but it is theirs, won by the hardest 
labor, labor that the American would scorn to do. 
It is only a pittance compared with the wealth they 
have created and left behind, and every dollar that 
they carry home is only helping to create abroad 
a larger market for American goods. 

We are short-sighted when we rail against the 
immigrant. We called him here by the opportu- 
nities which we held out to him. He has responded 
to our appeal. We should treat him as a brother, 
and not as " the scum of the earth." 

The Menace of the Immigrant 

Much is being written in these days about the 
menace of the immigrant. Many people are becom- 
ing hysterical, and speak as though our country was 



The New Americans 141 

going to be destroyed by them. But this is no 
new cry. It has been repeated over and over again 
in America from the beginning. Mrs. Barnes 
quotes, in '' New America," from an interesting 
letter by Benjamin Franklin, written in Philadelphia 

ii^ 1753: 

Those who come hither are generally the most stupid of 
their own nation, and as ignorance is often attended with 
great credulity, when knavery would mislead it ... it 
is almost impossible to remove any prejudice they may 
entertain. . . Not being used to liberty, they know not 
how to make modest use of it. . . In short, unless the 
stream of importation could be turned from this to other 
colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon 
so outnumber us, that all the advantages that we will 
have will, in my opinion, be not able to preserve our 
language, and even our government will become precarious. 

That sounds as though it appeared in last night's 
paper. He had in mind the immigration from Ger- 
many when he wrote these apprehensive words. 
When we recall what the German people have con- 
tributed to the establishment and development of 
this nation, it may lead us to be a bit less appre- 
hensive about the people who are now coming to us, 
and of whom we are so much afraid. 

That there are many dangers facing us in this 
new immigration cannot for one moment be denied. 
The dangers are greater than any we have faced 
before, because the environment and the heritage 
out of which the new immigration is coming are 



142 The Commonw^lths and the Kingdom 

so entirely different from those whence the earlier 
immigration came. The safety of the country 
existed then, in the permeation of these people 
with our national ideals. How wonderfully they 
responded is evident to any one who studies the 
process of Americanization which has gone on 
among the German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish 
immigrants. Once they caught our national spirit 
they became the best of Americans. 

Our new immigrants come out of an entirely dif- 
ferent environment, but whether or not they possess 
innate qualities which make of them as good mate- 
rial for American citizenship is a question not yet 
settled. The burden of proof lies with him who 
denies it. The readiness with which the Greek and 
Balkan immigrants sold their possessions and ha- 
stened back home to join the army at the outbreak 
of the recent war speaks well for their future pa- 
triotism when they become genuine Americans. 

The Safety of America 

But the safety of the country toniay rests just 
where it did a generation ago, in the permeation of 
the new immigrants with our national ideals. If we 
can permeate them with our national spirit as we 
did their predecessors, we need have no fear as to 
the future of America. That this is not impossible 
is becoming increasingly evident. The children of 
the immigrant, who attend the public schools, are 
intensely patriotic. They can salute the Stars and 



The New Americans 143 

Stripes with more grace than an American, and 
they can sing the national anthem through to the 
end, a thing which few American children can do. 
Professor Steiner tells the story of a Jewish lad 
who was making a return trip to Europe, after sev- 
eral years in his adopted country. As the ship 
neared the other side he placed a small American 
flag in the lapel of his coat. His friends expostu- 
lated with him that it would cost him dear at the 
hands of the European who believes that the Amer- 
ican is made of money. " It will make no differ- 
ence," replied he ; '' they will see it in my face that 
I am an American.'^ 

The National Spirit 

But what is the national spirit, and what are the 
national ideals? The true national ideals and the 
real national spirit are the spirit and the ideals of 
Christianity. The Christian church has heretofore 
been the great agency in the transformation of the 
new citizens. It has had the assistance of many 
allied institutions, but these have very largely de- 
rived their inspiration and their power from organ- 
ized Christianity. The service which the church has 
rendered in the Americanization of the immigrants 
can never be estimated. 

If the immigrants of these later days are to be 
Americanized, the responsibility for it will still rest 
upon the Christian church, and the church of Christ 
in America is facing its greatest test in all history, as 



144 ^^^ Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

it faces the task of remaking these citizens of the 
world. If the church fails now, America is doomed. 
If the church succeeds, it will achieve its greatest 
triumph. It is a tremendous task to which the 
Christian church must now address itself. 

The Task of Protestantism 

There are some who believe that this is outside 
the task of Protestant Christianity. They declare 
that the present immigrants are largely from Roman 
and Greek Catholic countries, and that the Prot- 
estant church must respect the convictions of these 
people and not seek to turn them from their faith. 
It must be acknowledged that the Roman Church 
has been a factor of tremendous influence in hold- 
ing in check the aspirations of thousands of these 
new people until they have caught the American 
spirit. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged 
that multitudes of people are coming from countries 
upon which the Roman Church has lost all hold. 
One of the most serious aspects of modern life is 
the extent to which the Roman Church has lost its 
influence upon the people of Europe. The secession 
amounts to scores of millions.^ Take the Italian, 
for example. The people of Italy are practically 
lost to the Roman Church. The tyranny which the 
church exercised over the Italian people for genera- 
tions cannot be forgotten. The Italian churches are 

1 For a study of this subject readers are referred to McCabe's " The 
Decay of the Church of Rome." 



The New Americans 1 45 

deserted by the men, as every traveler in Italy 
knows. The superstition and fear which the church 
engenders in the women keeps many of them loyal 
still to its forms and ceremonies. But the spirit of 
true religion has gone from them. There is a say- 
ing which has a vast deal of truth in it, that the 
Italian goes to church just three times in his life, 
once in accord with his will and twice against it, 
once when he is christened, once when he is mar- 
ried, and once when he is buried. 

When, therefore, the Protestant church seeks to 
give the gospel to the Italians in America, it is in 
no sense seeking to proselyte; it is not trying to 
make Protestants out of Romanists. It is simply 
seeking to minister to those who have no vital touch 
with Christianity. The priests of the church may 
utter a protest, but they are doing nothing to min- 
ister in any effective way to these people. The 
largest element in our present immigration is from 
Italy. Over two million Italians have come to Amer- 
ica in the last ten years. If this increasingly large 
element in our population is to be influenced by 
Christianity, the work must be done by the Protestant 
church. If the Protestant church does not respond 
to this call, we shall have a large and influential 
element of our population without any religion, 
unless it is the religion of atheism and anarchism, 
the doctrines of which are being proclaimed among 
them in most extensive and effective fashion. 

These people are not irreligious. In fact, they 



146 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

are intensely religious in spirit, and respond eagerly 
to an intelligent presentation of the gospel. Mis- 
sionaries find that the Italians are more responsive 
to the gospel than any other class of people among 
whom they work. They seem eager for such a 
message as the Protestant church has to offer. 

The Hebrew in America 

The second largest element in our present im- 
migration is the Jewish. There are about one mil- 
lion, one hundred thousand Jewish people in Greater 
New York, or over twenty-six per cent of the 
entire population, which is a percentage larger than 
that of any of the great cities of the world, except 
Warsaw and Lodz in Russia, and Jerusalem. New 
York is by over three-quarters of a million the 
largest Jewish city in the world. Driven out by the 
persecution in Russia and other sections of eastern 
Europe, these people are drawn to America by the 
hope of freedom from their trials and the desire 
for a better opportunity for their children. In 
Russia they are suffering persecution that is far 
worse than our fathers endured three centuries ago. 
One of the marvels of the ages is the tenacity with 
which the Hebrews have held to their historic faith 
century after century in spite of continual persecu- 
tion equal to that of the Dark Ages. But the sad 
fact is that no sooner do these people land in Amer- 
ica than large numbers of them throw their religion 
to the winds. They desert their synagogues and 



The New Americans 147 

all organized forms of religion, save perhaps their 
feast days, which are now family or national fes- 
tivals rather than religious institutions. Many 
heads of households can no longer explain the sig- 
nificance of the Passover to their children. A recent 
canvass in the Harlem district of New York by the 
Federation of Churches showed forty-six per cent 
of the population to be Jewish, while seventy-nine 
per cent of these had no connection with the syna- 
gogues, and 140,000 Jewish children were reported 
by the rabbis as destitute of religious training. 
Rabbi Professor Asher, one of the leading rabbis in 
New York, declares : '' Ninety per cent of the Jews 
of New York State will be completely lost to Juda- 
ism because not more than ten per cent of the Jew- 
ish children are receiving religious instruction in 
any shape or form." Professor Steiner, our greatest 
authority, says that the loss of Jews to Judaism in 
America is already a disaster, and if it goes on at 
the present rate, it will prove a national catastrophe. 

When, therefore, the Protestant church sends its 
missionaries with the Messianic message, it is in 
no sense trying to proselyte, to turn these people 
from their historic faith, nor to make Gentiles 
out of Jews. It is simply seeking to give a re- 
ligious message to a multitude of our fellow citizens 
who are living among us without any religion. 

The Protestant church is facing one of the great- 
est opportunities of the centuries here in America. 
The church is spending millions, and rightly, to give 

L 



148 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

the gospel to these peoples and their brethren at the 
ends of the earth. Why should not the church 
embrace this opportunity to preach to these people 
when they come to America? It can be done at a 
tithe of the expense. They are much more easily 
reached. The results will be worth while. There 
has always been a strange fascination in missions 
that are conducted among unknown people on the 
other side of the world. Why should we lose our 
enthusiasm when these people become our neigh- 
bors, and their children play with our children? 

The Motive of Self-protection 

If we are not moved by the call of the opportunity 
presented by the needs of these people, then we 
surely must be moved by the interests of the coun- 
try in which we dwell and which we are to hand 
on to our children. If we do not remake these 
people and conform them to our standards, then 
they will certainly remake us and conform us to 
their standards. We face an inevitable dilemma. 
Theodore Roosevelt was right when he said: " If we 
do not settle the question of what we will do with 
these people, they will settle the question of what 
they will do with us. If we do not lift their chil- 
dren up to our level, they will drag our children 
down to their level." If we do not inspire them 
with our ideals, they will degrade us with their 
ideals. If we do not permeate them with tlie spirit 
of our Christianity, they will permeate us with the 



I 



• 



The New Americans 149 

spirit of anarchism. This country cannot exist half- 
Christian, half-pagan. 

One of the foremost students of history and 
political science has made the astonishing declara- 
tion that the time is coming when America will be 
ruled by the Italian. Before we laugh this serious 
prophecy out of court, we need to recall two or 
three facts. A generation ago our fathers would 
have ridiculed the idea that the Irishman would 
ever dominate American poHtics. But to-day the 
Irishman is probably the most influential factor in 
the politics of America. Robert Watchorn, the great 
ex-Commissioner of Immigration, has said: ''Give 
the Italian and the Pole half a chance, and they will 
make the Irishman and Yankee look like thirty 
cents.'' Remember too, that in the veins of these 
Italians, whom we call " dagoes,'' there still runs 
the blood of the Romans, and the Romans several 
times conquered the world and then Romanized it. 
Remember also that since God first set the foot of 
man upon this earth, he has seldom created a race 
of men more wonderfully gifted than the Italian. 
But if the Italians or any other race of men are to 
rule America, we want them to rule it as Christians, 
do we not? Then the church of to-day must now 
give the gospel to these citizens of to-morrow. 

The Task of the State Conventions 

By whom now is this work to be done ? In a few 
cases a thorough program has been undertaken by 



150 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

individual churches upon their own initiative, and 
most satisfactory results have been secured. Illus- 
trations of this type of work may be found in the 
Judson Memorial Baptist Church of New York and 
the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church of Pittsburg. 
Other churches maintain efficient missions among 
particular races for which they have assumed re- 
sponsibility. The Baptist Church at North Orange, 
New Jersey, has taken a special interest in the Ital- 
ians, erected a chapel for their use, and maintains a 
missionary in charge. Examples of this type of min- 
istry may be found in various parts of the country. 
But for the most part, few churches have individu- 
ally assumed the responsibility for such work. 

With few exceptions, such as have been noted, 
this work has been undertaken by the State Con- 
ventions, in cooperation with the Home Mission 
Society. In recent years the Woman's American 
Baptist Home Mission Society has begun coopera- 
tion in this work, as is explained in another chap- 
ter. In several of the large cities also. City Mission 
Societies have been organized recently, and are ad- 
dressing themselves to this task in a most heroic 
manner. But the main part of the burden has until 
now been borne by the State Conventions. 

The Germans 

The work naturally began among the Germans, 
as they were the first to come in any considerable 
numbers. These people pushed out into the Mid- 



The New Americans 151 

die States, where the Conventions were still young 
and the funds were small. But the Conventions of 
American churches recognized that God had opened 
a door of opportunity among these new people, and 
they gladly undertook the task of giving these 
neighbors the gospel. The Germans readily re- 
sponded to the message of a Free Church in a 
Free State, and a large number of strong German 
churches have been established. Most of these are 
now independent and self-supporting. Immigra- 
tion from Germany has almost entirely ceased, so 
that there is comparatively little necessity now for 
pioneer German work or the establishment of new 
German churches. A large number of those who 
have been converted in the German churches have 
become so completely Americanized that they have 
left the German churches and united with the Amer- 
ican churches. But there are now three hundred 
and sixty-nine German Baptist churches in the 
United States, with about 30,000 members. The 
Conventions have been amply rewarded for the work 
they have done among the German people. 

The French 

At about the same time the Eastern States began 
to receive large numbers of French-Canadians from 
the province of Quebec. These people settled in 
the mill towns of New England, and for a genera- 
tion they ran the cotton-mills of that section. No 
people have come to us who have been held so 



152 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

powerfully in the grip of religious superstition. For 
this reason they have been exceedingly hard to 
reach. But the Conventions of New England and 
the Home Mission Society have wrought together at 
this problem with considerable success. The most 
prosperous mission has probably been at Waterville, 
Maine. Through the doors of this mission over a 
thousand French-Canadians have passed out of the 
bondage of superstition into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. 

The progress of the French missions has been 
apparently slow. The Conventions have believed 
that the best policy to follow with these Latin people 
is to maintain missions among them, and to re- 
ceive the converts into the American churches which 
should have a fraternal oversight of their work. 
Through these missions hundreds of converts have 
been baptized into the fellowship of American 
churches, and have soon lost their identity as French- 
men. The wisdom of this policy has been amply 
demonstrated, for while the Baptists have seldom 
had to close a French mission which they had thor- 
oughly established, the other denominations which 
followed the policy of organizing these people into 
independent churches, have lost nearly every one. 
Those who have so recently come out of the sys- 
tem of the Roman Church are scarcely prepared at 
once to assume the burdens of conducting inde- 
pendent democratic churches. This policy has also 
hastened the Americanization of these people. 



The New Americans 153 

This work among the French-Canadians has been 
much more prosperous than any figures which might 
be quoted would indicate. It is impossible to esti- 
mate with any exactness the number of French 
members in our Baptist churches. They are as- 
similated so rapidly when once they have entered a 
favorable environment, that the fact of their origin 
is soon forgotten. It is estimated that this number 
is about 4,000 at present, but if all the facts were 
known, the number would probably be found to be 
very much larger. One French mission in New 
England has led fifty-nine members into the fellow- 
ship of the church, with which it is associated, 
during the past ten years. For years to come the 
Conventions of the East must continue this dif- 
ficult but highly important work of leading the 
French-Canadians out of darkness into light. 

The Scandinavians 

So far as the strength of our religious institutions 
is concerned, the most important element in our 
xA.merican immigration has been the Scandinavian. 
Norway and Sweden have sent hundreds of thou- 
sands of their best citizens to America. What these 
people have done in the upbuilding of the nation 
would require volumes to relate. There are Swed- 
ish churches in nearly every State, but the majority 
of them are to be found in such States of the middle 
West as Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. 
These hardy, thrifty, industrious people have scat- 



154 T^he Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

tered themselves widely over the nation, many of 
them having been pioneers as far as the Pacific 
Coast, but by far the largest proportion of them as- 
sisted in opening up the Trans-Mississippi States. 
Hence the strength of their churches is to be found 
there. 

The State churches of Norway and Sweden are 
Lutheran, and most of the Scandinavians in this 
country are nominally related to this denomina- 
tion. But the evangelical revival spread very widely 
in Sweden, and many of these people turned natu- 
rally to the Baptist churches on their arrival in 
America. There are at present three hundred and 
seventy- four Swedish Baptist churches in the United 
States, with 28,000 members. Nearly every one of 
the State Conventions is at present assisting these 
people in establishing independent churches. The 
Conventions find unusual satisfaction in the assist- 
ance which they lend the Scandinavians, for they 
are exceedingly independent, and strive for self-sup- 
port with eagerness and zeal. They doubtless sur- 
pass nearly all other Christians in the percentage 
of their giving, their average being over twenty-two 
dollars per member, which is far in advance of 
what is done by most " original Americans.'' 

These people are a bit more clannish than most 
of the immigrants. They absorb the American spirit 
readily, but they are much more loth than others to 
abandon their own language and national customs. 
In America they have formed their own district 



The New Americans 155 

and national conventions, and have their own effi- 
cient mission boards, to which they are naturally 
much more attached than to the general organiza- 
tions of the denomination. But in their own way 
they are a tower of strength to the denomination, 
and in time they will be much more closely related 
to the denominational work than at present. 

These Swedish churches are not only furnishing 
more than their share of the funds for the Kingdom; 
they are furnishing a large percentage of the men 
as well. Nearly every year they send more than 
their quota of the new recruits who are forwarded 
to the front. The theological seminaries are send- 
ing Swedish young men into our American minis- 
try every year, and the Scandinavians are thus 
paying back to the denomination a generous interest 
on the funds which the Conventions have been in- 
vesting in them. 

The Danes and the Finns 

Similar in many respects to the Scandinavians are 
the Danes and the Finns, though the latter are 
Mongolian in race. These people have been thrown 
together with the Scandinavians in many ways, and 
their languages have been intermingled as have 
their histories. The Danes have settled almost ex- 
clusively in the States of the Mississippi Valley, 
and have for the most part taken to agriculture. 
They partake of many of the strong religious qual- 
ities of the Scandinavians. They have been closely 



156 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

allied with the Norwegians in their religious work 
in America, many of the churches being known as 
Dano-Norwegian, and until very recently they have 
joined in the support of a Theological Seminary 
allied with Chicago University. Many of the Finns, 
driven out of Finland by the cruel Russification 
policy of the Czar, have come to America. The 
majority of these also have gone out into the North- 
west, though many have settled in the quarry and 
factory towns of New England. Their percentage 
of illiteracy is very low, and they are making a 
valuable contribution to the building of the New 
America. These people have also been responsive 
to the missionary work of the Conventions, and 
several good churches and missions have been estab- 
lished. 

The New Immigrant 

It is impossible within the scope of this book to 
treat at length the missionary work of the Conven- 
tions among the newer immigrants from eastern 
and southern Europe. This would include the 
Armenians, Syrians, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians, 
Jews, and the many branches of the Slavic race 
that are now coming to America in such un- 
precedented numbers — Russians, Poles, Bohemians, 
Slovaks, Magyars, and many others. Work has 
been undertaken among all these races and peoples 
by the Conventions in recent years, but while great 
discouragement has attended some work and mar- 



The New Americans 157 

velous success has attended other efforts, it is prob- 
ably too soon to estimate just what permanent in- 
fluence this work will have upon the development 
of these various races in America. 

The Italians 

It will be sufficient to refer to the work among 
one of the races that have recently begun to come 
to us. We will take the Italians as an example, 
since the largest amount of work is being attempted 
among them. In 1900 there were less than 500,000 
(foreign-born) Italians in the whole United States. 
To-day there are more than half a million in the 
city of New York alone. There are more than 
thirty solid blocks on the East Side of New York 
City peopled by southern Italians, and other solid 
blocks filled with northern Italians. There are 
more Italians in New York than in any other city 
of the world. During the last ten years more than 
two million Italians have come to America, and they 
are coming to-day in larger numbers than any other 
nationality. They are filling up great sections of 
many of our cities, and every city of any consider- 
able size has its " Little Italy." Their strong tend- 
ency is to congregate in the larger cities, but there 
are doubtless few cities of any size in America 
where these ambitious, thrifty, open-hearted people 
may not be found. 

We have already explained how largely the Ital- 
ians have deserted their church, and that they form 



158 The Coniuwnzi^ealths and the Kingdom 

an increasingly large element of our population that 
is almost completely without the gospel. They are 
the easy prey of all kinds of atheistic and anarchistic 
orators. Tons of anarchistic literature are being 
constantly distributed among them, and thousands 
of them are embracing this as their religion. This 
people furnishes a wonderful opportunity to the 
Christian church, provided the missionary can gain 
their ear before the anarchist does. 

Many missions have been opened during the past 
few years by the different Conventions, but it is 
impossible to keep pace with the opportunities and 
the demands. The Italians often anticipate the 
plans of the Boards, and send requests for mission- 
aries, and frequently offer financial assistance. They 
often become eager and enthusiastic in their appeals. 

The results of the missionary work among the 
Italians far surpass those among any other people 
to whom we have presented the gospel in the same 
period of time. They are wonderfully responsive to 
the evangelical message. No people are so appre- 
ciative of friendship as are the Italians. Speak to 
them a word of greeting in their own tongue or a 
word about their own beautiful land, and you can 
win friends in a minute. The church that shows 
the spirit of friendship has an easy avenue of ap- 
proach to these warm-hearted southerners. 

Many of these missions have been surprisingly 
successful. From a large number of illustrations, we 
may select the mission at Lawrence, Massachusetts. 




Italian Baptist Church, Brooklyn. 
Home of Italian Theological Seminary. 



The New Americans 159 

Here there are about ten thousand Italians, Hving for 
the most part in a large colony. The Baptists opened 
their mission in a small vacant store, about six years 
ago. The missionary was not a highly trained man, 
but earnest and devoted to his work. During his 
ministry of three years about forty Italians were 
received into the First Baptist Church. He was 
then succeeded by a gifted and highly trained mis- 
sionary. During his three years of service forty- 
seven more have been received, twenty-seven hav- 
ing been baptized on one Sunday in the summer 
of 1912. These missionaries have gained a hearing 
among a large number of the Italians, and the peo- 
ple of the colony have great confidence in them. 
During the strike and riots of 1912, the mission- 
aries exercised a strong influence among their excited 
brethren, and during those fearful days not a single 
one related to the mission was guilty of any strife 
and violence. The missionaries secured relief for 
families that were without work and in distress, 
and by the manifestation of friendship on their part 
and by the members of the Christian church many 
of the Italians were won to the mission. To those 
who know these people there is the plainest evidence 
of the transforming power of the gospel. 

One of the best evidences of the real change in 
these Italians is the eagerness with which they carry 
the gospel to new groups of their countrymen. One 
is reminded of the early Christian days, when those 
who were scattered abroad went everywhere preach- 



i6o The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

ing the Word. These Italians move from place to 
place, far and wide, but they carry their message 
and preach the gospel. In this way many new 
missions have been started. It is said that one 
Italian Presbyterian church in New York is the 
mother of fourteen Italian missions in the United 
States and two in Italy. 

The greatest hindrance to the progress of the 
Italian work, as of that among all others, is the dif- 
ficulty of securing proper leaders. There are as 
yet few trained Italian missionaries, and the Con- 
ventions have been compelled to use men who are 
not properly qualified to be leaders. Sometimes 
trained men have been brought from Italy, but they 
do not always adapt themselves to the new con- 
ditions in America. We must raise up in America a 
ministry of young men, trained in the environment 
in which they are to labor. For this purpose Colgate 
University has established a branch of its Theo- 
logical Seminary in Brooklyn, where a group of 
promising men are preparing to preach to their own 
people. If, at this susceptible time, we had a suf- 
ficient number of trained men, we could reach thou- 
sands of the Italians in the next ten years. 

What we have said regarding the Italians is in 
large measure the case among all these more recent 
comers to America. The situation among the Ital- 
ians has been cited simply as a clear illustration of 
the situation among most of these races. 

In most cases this important missionary work 



The New Americans i6i 

has been inaugurated through the initiative of the 
State Conventions. The work is carried on by these 
Conventions in cooperation with local churches, city 
mission societies, and the Home Mission Society. 
A glance at the table of statistics in an Appendix 
will reveal something of the extent to which the 
Conventions are now carrying on this work. Statis- 
tics are not at hand to indicate the total number of 
missionaries employed, but the table does reveal the 
number of nationalities among which the different 
Conventions are working. It varies all the way 
from one nationality in Nevada, Oklahoma, and 
Wyoming to nine nationalities in New Jersey, ten 
in Massachusetts, and twelve in California. In some 
of these States, like Massachusetts, the Conventions 
are spending more money among these New Amer- 
icans than among the old Yankees. But even with 
all their investments, the Conventions and mission- 
ary societies are only touching the fringe of this 
problem. They are doing what they can to save 
America, but until the funds in their hands are 
greatly multiplied they will never be able to under- 
take this task in any adequate fashion. The serious- 
ness of the situation demands that the Conventions 
should have the sufficient backing of the churches 
to undertake this work in a large way. 

How THE Churches Should Help 

But this greatest American problem will never 
be solved if the churches depend upon the work 



i62 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

which the State Conventions and the missionary so- 
cieties are able to do. When they have done their 
utmost there will still be an immense w^ork un- 
touched. If we are going to solve this problem in 
America, then every church must build over against 
its own house. Every church ought to seek out 
some colony of these new neighbors, for whom 
nothing religious is being done, and then undertake 
a definite campaign among them. By neighborhood 
visitation, by special services in the church to which 
these people are given personal invitations, by eve- 
ning classes for the study of English, by special 
classes in the Sunday-school, by social gatherings in 
the church, or by other efficient methods, every city 
church, and a large number of village churches, 
ought to be seeking, as a definite and deliberate part 
of their mission, to reach these new citizens of the 
Republic for the Kingdom. Only as the churches 
very generally supplement the work which the Con- 
ventions are doing, can the Christian people of 
America solve this, their most serious problem. 

Solving a World Problem 

It is worth noting in closing that as we solve, in 
this way, a great national problem, we are at the 
same time solving a world problem. The next great 
task of the Christian church must be to win back 
to a simple and pure Christianity the greater part 
of southern and eastern Europe, now largely lost 
to a vital faith. How is this to be done? We may 



The New Americans 163 

learn something from the results of this new work 
in America. 

In an Italian mission in an Eastern State an old 
man seventy years of age was converted. When he 
moved to another town he sought out the Baptist 
pastor, and asked him to explain the Word to him. 
Through his influence an Italian mission was started 
in connection with that church. After a time the 
old man determined to go back to Italy, and at a 
farewell reception which was given to him at the 
mission, a friend said to him : '' Benedetto, what do 
you want to go back to Italy for? Isn't x\merica 
good enough for you? Can't you earn more here 
than you can there ? " " Oh, yes, sir ! " he replied ; 
" I love America. I can earn more here than there. 
But, sir, I have some sons back in Italy, and I want 
them to be missionaries." Ten months passed, and 
he sent back a letter to his friends. '' I have now 
been in Italy ten months. I have endured great 
persecution; but, thank God, there are now ten 
who worship Jesus at our house." 

Two young men were converted in an Italian mis- 
sion. Then they sent back to Sicily for their mother 
to come to them in America. She was greatly 
troubled when she learned of their change of faith. 
But by their earnest, devoted lives she was soon 
persuaded to accept Christ as her Saviour. Then 
her heart went back to her other children in Sicily, 
and, taking her Italian Testament which she had 
learned to read, she went back to her little town. 

M 



164 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

The old church was there, and the ilHterate priests 
were performing their perfunctory services. She 
began to go from house to house, telling the story 
of her experience, until little by little that whole 
village was transformed. The old church is now 
closed, the priests are gone, a new church has taken 
its place, and that town now belongs to Christ That 
is the way Italy is being rechristianized. 

These are only two illustrations of what is going 
on all over Europe. We are sending back scores 
of missionaries, men who have been transformed in 
these missions by the power of the gospel, men 
who are going everywhere preaching the Word. In 
this way, therefore, we are not only saving America, 
but we are helping to save the world. 






I 



VII 



RELATIONS AND INTERRELATIONS 



J 



^ 



VII 

RELATIONS AND INTERRELATIONS 

The independence of the Baptist Conventions has 
been quite as marked as that of Baptist churches. 
Each has had its own distinct field and work, and 
there have been no interrelations. Many would 
have been as ready to defend '' State Convention 
rights '' as some were to defend '' State rights " a 
half-century ago. The Conventions on the Pacific 
Coast have held an occasional Pacific Coast Con- 
ference to consider mutual interests, and the Con- 
ventions in New England have organized the New 
England Baptist Conference, which meets bien- 
nially. Aside from this the Conventions have had 
practically no interrelations. 

With the Northern Baptist Convention 

The Northern Baptist Convention was organized 
primarily to furnish a platform for Northern Bap- 
tists and a means for unifying the missionary work 
of the denomination. It was at once found that 
there was a " denominational consciousness " wait- 
ing for the opportunity of expression. 

When the Convention was first organized the 
most important question that arose was as to its 

167 



1 68 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

constituency. There were many who beheved that the 
State Conventions, composed of delegates from the 
churches, should appoint the delegates to the North- 
ern Baptist Convention. But the fear of encroach- 
ing upon the independence of the churches finally 
led to a decision to place the appointing power 
directly with the churches themselves. But the pres- 
ent cumbersome composition of the Convention, 
whereby the great majority of the delegates are 
from the churches near the place of meeting, may 
ultimately force the adoption of the more natural 
method of organization through delegates appointed 
by the State Conventions, which are themselves com- 
posed of delegates appointed by the churches. This 
would insure more equitable representation of the 
Baptists of all sections. 

After much discussion a method of affiliation 
has now been worked out, and the State Conven- 
tions may now become '' Affiliating Organizations " 
of the Northern Baptist Convention. In order to 
enter this relationship they must agree : 

(a) To adopt the following statement of objects: 

To promote in the State of — — the preaching of the 
gospel, ministerial and general education, the establish- 
ment, maintenance, and assistance of Baptist churches and 
Bible schools, and the care of worthy ministers, their 
wives or widows, and their dependent children. 

To give expression to the opinions of its constituency 
upon moral, religious, and denominational matters, to pro- 
mote denominational unity and efficiency in efforts for the 



Relations and Interrelations 169 

evangelization of the world, to support earnestly the work 
of the cooperating organizations of the Northern Baptist 
Convention, and by affiliating with that Convention to 
promote its plans and work. 

(b) To provide for the promotion of these objects by 
thorough and efficient organization. 

(c) To appoint an Apportionment Committee, whose 
duty it shall be to receive from the Apportionment Com- 
mittee of the Northern Baptist Convention the statement 
of the amount apportioned by the latter to the State, to 
add to that amount the sum adopted by the State Conven- 
tion for all other objects, and to apportion the aggregate 
amount equitably among the churches of the State, and 
to notify each church of the amount apportioned to it 
District Secretaries of the organizations cooperating with 
the Northern Baptist Convention and the Secretary of the 
State Convention shall be advisory members of the State 
Apportionment Committee. 

(d) To employ such agents and methods and to take 
such other action to carry the apportionment into effect 
as to it may seem wise. 

With the formation of the Northern Baptist Con- 
vention the different State Conventions found that 
they had many things in common, and that their 
independence must give way to interdependence. 
A council of the State Convention secretaries has 
been organized to consider mutual interests and to 
develop plans of cooperation. The council meets at 
least once each year. One result of its work is seen 
in the preparation of this book, which has been pub- 
lished under its auspices. The Northern Baptist 
Convention has also appointed a Commission on 



170 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

State Conventions, which makes an annual report ^ 
of the conditions and work of the State Conventions, 
and makes recommendations for mutual helpfulness. 
The Conventions have thus come to have a very 
important place in the polity and work of the 
denomination. 

With Denominational Journalism 

" The Baptist Missionary Magazine " was the 
original publication of the Baptists of America. 
At the second meeting of the Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society arrangements were made for the 
publication of a magazine, and Dr. Thomas Bald- 
win was appointed '' conductor." During the first 
years the magazine was issued monthly, and then 
quarterly. But in 1816 a new series was begun, 
and the name was changed from " The Massachu- 
setts Baptist Missionary Magazine " to " The Amer- 
ican Baptist Missionary Magazine." The publica- 
tion was made bimonthly until 1824, when it was 
issued monthly. 

At the meeting of the Massachusetts Baptist Mis- 
sionary Society in June, 1826, a committee from the 
Board of Foreign Missions appeared to ask the 
Society to transfer the ownership of the magazine 
to that body. A committee reported that '' having 
had a mutual consultation upon the subject, it is 
their opinion that several advantages would result 
to religion generally, and to that of missions par- 

l Sec report for 1913 in the Annual of the Northern Baptist Convention, 



^Relations and Interrelations 171 

ticularly, by transferring the publication of ' The 
American Baptist Missionary Magazine ' to the 
American Board of Foreign Missions." In January, 
1827, the magazine passed to the new body, and 
has been issued continuously by the Foreign Mis- 
sion organization until it was merged in " Missions '' 
in 1910. 

Denominational journalism thus began with a 
State missionary organization, and from that time 
the State Conventions have been actively interested 
in the journalistic enterprises of the church. 

The necessity, which was early felt in Massachu- 
setts, of having some medium of reporting condi- 
tions and needs to the constituency, has been felt by 
nearly all the State Conventions, as in turn they 
have come to self-consciousness. At some time or 
other in their history the Baptists in nearly every 
one of the older States have had a State paper of 
their own. Many of these papers were started by 
the Conventions themselves. Others have had 
direct financial assistance from the Conventions, so 
strong has been the conviction that the people of 
each State must know their own conditions better 
than a general denominational paper can report 
them. But it has become increasingly difficult and 
almost impossible, in these days of multiplied papers 
and periodicals, to maintain religious journals, and 
with great reluctance nearly every State has been 
compelled to relinquish the publication of its own 
paper. A few are still maintained, and in each 



1/2 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

case have assistance from the Conventions. The 
Maine Convention, by its financial assistance, main- 
tains the "Zion's Advocate/' ''The Baptist Ob- 
server " is pubHshed in Indiana, and has the cordial 
support of the State Convention. " The Baptist 
Record "of Iowa is largely a State paper, and in 
close sympathy v^ith the denominational work of the 
State. Some of the Conventions publish monthly 
or occasional magazines devoted largely to stories 
of their work. '' The Ohio Bulletin,'' " The Kansas 
Baptist," " The New Jersey Bulletin/' '' The Con- 
vention Bulletin of New York," and " The Nebraska 
Bulletin " are examples of this type. They relate 
in detail the story of the State Convention work, 
and are valuable adjuncts to the State activities. 

The larger denominational papers, " The Watch- 
man-Examiner "of Boston and New" York, " The 
Journal and Messenger " of Cincinnati, '' The 
Standard " of Chicago, and '' The Pacific Baptist " 
of Oregon, devote large space to the work of the 
Conventions, and nearly every issue contains in 
greater or less detail reports of such work. " The 
Standard," for example, for a long time issued a 
Michigan edition each week, and in one issue of 
each month there is a special department for reports 
in turn from Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
Iowa. While they may not in some ways take the 
places of the former State papers, these denomina- 
tional journals are most valuable mediums for the 
State Conventions, and the perusal of their columns 



Relations and Interrelations 173 

week by week will furnish fairly accurate knowl- 
edge of what the Conventions are doing. The Con- 
ventions furnish no direct financial assistance to 
these journals, but are always ready to further their 
interests, and the relations prove mutually helpful. 

With the American Baptist Home Mission 

Society 

The story of the varied relations of the State Con- 
ventions with the American Baptist Home Mission 
Society furnishes an interesting chapter of Bap- 
tist history. When the Home Mission Society was 
organized in 1832, provision was made that State 
and local societies of various kinds might become 
auxihary. The constitution provided: 

Article VII. Any Baptist Missionary Society may be- 
come auxiliary by agreeing to pay into the treasury of 
the Society the whole of its surplus funds, and sending 
to the Corresponding Secretary a copy of its constitution 
and annual reports, mentioning the names of its mis- 
sionaries and the fields of their operations. 

Article VIII. Every auxiliary society which shall agree 
to pay the whole of its funds to this Society, shall be en- 
titled to a missionary or missionaries to labor in such 
field as it may designate, to an amount at least equal 
to that of its contributions, provided such designation be 
made at the time of payment. 

This arrangement was known as the auxiliary 
plan, and was immediately adopted by some of the 
States. At the second annual meeting representa- 



1/4 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

tives were present from the auxiliary Conventions 
of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Within ten years (1843) 
twenty of the State Conventions had become aux- 
iliary, only five remaining disconnected. The rela- 
tions were apparently hearty and cordial, but seri- 
ous differences developed in 1844 because the Home 
Mission Society sent independent collecting agents 
into the territory of some of the auxiliary Conven- 
tions. The relations became strained because the 
Society persisted in its course, and in 1846 the 
auxiliary system was abandoned. 

But it was not possible that these organizations 
which were doing the same work within the same 
territory should always remain unrelated. In 1863, 
at the request of the General Association of Illinois, 
a plan of cooperation with State Conventions was 
worked out. All the State Conventions were in- 
vited to cooperate with the Society by assisting in 
the collection of funds, pointing out the most de- 
sirable fields to be cultivated and suggesting men 
suitable for missionary work. In return the So- 
ciety agreed, so far as possible, to appoint the men 
and to occupy the fields suggested. A number of 
the Conventions, largely in the West, accepted the 
invitation and became cooperating organizations. 
This plan continued in operation for ten years, but 
it did not work entirely to the satisfaction of the 
Home Mission Society, and in 1874 the Society dis- 
continued the relationship. 







-^ • .^ . . 


... .„■:. 




<^8K- jfS sHI^Bi '^ 




:::^EiP%^ i#i^J 


%fi ' 






Pll^H 




'''■'m#K 


W^^ 


^.I^^^Sf^;' ■''' 


''-'#', 






M" ^ 




^ 


:^j^ll 


lp^^^*'4^^^^^^^^H 


Ik 




P**^k^ 


^'*^^i .-w^': «K % " 


"-^ 


■^^l/yj^^l 




^^^H 


i 


1 **^i^i^i- , ^ 


p 


1 ' '^l^^y 'v\-' 


b 


* '^SH ■ 



Relations and Interrelations 175 

But while difficulties beset the relationship, it 
was harder for these organizations to live apart 
than to live together, and after five years the plan 
of cooperation was revived, and since 1878 the 
Home Mission Society and the State Conventions 
have wrought together in this happy relation. The 
path has not always been smooth, differences have 
often arisen, but in the spirit of mutual confidence 
the difficulties have been settled and on the im- 
proved highway the work has progressed with 
marvelous success. 

The relation between the Home Mission Society 
and the State Conventions is not the same in every 
case, the relationship being determined by the finan- 
cial strength of the different Conventions. With 
the State Conventions east of the Mississippi River 
the Home Mission Society has a pro rata arrange- 
ment by which, in most cases, they give dollar for 
dollar to supplement what the State Conventions 
appropriate. This arrangement is confined entirely, 
with the exception of West Virginia, to work among 
the New Americans. The Society does, of course, 
a large work among the Negroes of the Southern 
States, but in the Northern States east of the Mis- 
sissippi, with the single exception noted, the work 
of the Society is confined to the foreign-speaking 
immigrants. That work, which is described in an- 
other chapter, would be impossible were it not for 
the cooperation of the Home Mission Society with 
the State Conventions. 



176 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

West of the Mississippi the arrangement is dif- 
ferent. In these newer States the pioneer work 
was done, and is still done, by the Society. Long 
before State Conventions existed in the West, the 
missionaries of the Society had penetrated the new 
country, preaching the gospel and planting new 
churches. The State Conventions owe their exist- 
ence to the pioneer work of the Home Mission 
Society. 

The Western States are divided into three dis- 
tricts, each in charge of a superintendent. Dr. E. 
D. Proper has charge of a district comprising the 
States of Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, 
North and South Dakota. Dr. Bruce Kinney cares 
for the States of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. 
The western district, comprising the States of Wash- 
ington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, 
and Idaho, is under the direction of Dr. C. A. 
Wooddy. The General Missionaries or State Sec- 
retaries work in cooperation with these Superin- 
tendents. 

In these Western States the pro rata arrangement 
differs with the financial ability of the States, and 
changes from year to year according to conditions. 
The arrangement differs all the way from that with 
Minnesota, where the Society invests one dollar for 
every six dollars raised by the Convention, to the 
arrangement with the new Conventions in Nevada 
and Wyoming, where the Society invests ten dollars 
for each dollar raised on the field. In all these 



Relations and Interrelations 177 

States the missionaries are appointed on the recom- 
mendation of the State Convention Boards and the 
approval of the District Superintendents. Some con- 
ception of what the Home Mission Society has done 
in these Western States will be apparent from the 
following schedule : 

Missionary Expenditures in Western States from the 
Beginning to igi2 

Arizona $82,610 

California, North 160,400 

California, South 62,850 

Idaho 78,680 

Kansas 88,950 

Minnesota 61,900 

Montana 124,870 

Nebraska 91,325 

Nevada , 20,365 

New Mexico 97,885 

North Dakota i7i,575 

Oklahoma 236,957 

Oregon , 132,300 

South Dakota i95,55o 

Utah 79,910 

Washington, East I45,550 

Washington, West 170,750 

Wyoming 90,725 

Germans 176,900 

Total $2,270,052 

The Home Mission Society also has an arrange- 
ment with the State Conventions for grants in the 
church-edifice work. Like the other, this is also 



178 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

pro rata, and diflfers in the different States. For 
instance, in Minnesota and southern CaHfornia the 
Society gives dollar for dollar with the Convention. 
On the other hand, in Utah, where the denomina- 
tional resources are very limited, the Society gives 
twenty dollars for each dollar from the Convention. 
The ratio in the other States runs all the way be- 
tween these figures. 

When a gift is made the Society requires a first 
mortgage on the property, which insures the return 
to the Society and the Convention of the full amount 
of the gift, with interest from the date it was made, 
in case the edifice ceases to be used for the purposes 
for which the money was contributed. The Society 
has contributed over a million dollars for church- 
edifice work, as the table below indicates. 

Church-edifice Gifts to and Including 1912 

Alabama $350.00 

Arizona g,^2g.y^ 

Arkansas 1,400.00 

California 67,645.58 

Colorado 28,038.35 

Connecticut 2,600.00 

Cuba 117,083.76 

Delaware 200.00 

District of Columbia 2,500.00 

Florida 260.00 

Georgia 500.00 

Idaho 16,020.73 

Illinois 36,961.11 

Indiana 2,200.00 



Relations and Interrelations 179 

Indian Territory 22,864.08 

Iowa 42,805.00 

Kansas 43,842.02 

Kentucky 870.00 

Louisiana 650.00 

Maine 1,290.73 

Maryland 1,616.00 

Massachusetts 4,625.00 

Mexico 50,625.65 

Michigan 16,580.33 

Minnesota 48,575.00 

Mississippi 1,630.00 

Missouri 3,800.00 

Montana 22,527.00 

Nebraska 39,585-33 

Nevada 5,400.00 

New Hampshire 925.00 

New Jersey 2,560.00 

New Mexico 14,687.00 

New York 4,775.00 

North Carolina 3,106.76 

North Dakota 20,451.00 

Ohio 2,700.00 

Oklahoma 40,281.97 

Oregon 24,245.27 

Pennsylvania 3,070.00 

Porto Rico 113,256.78 

Rhode Island 200.00 

South Carolina 700.00 

South Dakota 30,045.97 

Tennessee 600.00 

Texas .^ 8,339.80 

Utah 41,177.30 

Vermont 6,861.53 

Virginia ., 1,900.00 

Washington 61,247.95 

N 



i8o The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

West Virginia 7,561.27 

Wisconsin 24,775.00 

Wyoming 14,100.00 

Alaska 2,200.00 

Canada 5,985.27 

Total $1,028,229.32 



In summing up the relationship of the State 
Conventions and the Home Mission Society, it is 
impossible to overstate the great contribution which 
the Society has made to the development of the 
work of the Conventions. Without the leadership 
which it has offered and the large gifts which 
it has made, the present development would have 
been impossible. All honor is due to the mag- 
nificent statesmanship and the wise disbursement 
which have marked the administration of the Amer- 
ican Baptist Home Mission Society. 

With the Woman's American Baptist Home 
Mission Society 

For many years the Woman's American Baptist 
Home Mission Society and the two former so- 
cieties of which it is constituted, has employed 
women missionaries among the Negroes of the 
South and the Indians of the West. In recent 
years they have been training and sending out 
young women missionaries to labor among the many 
nationalities who are coming to make their homes 
in America. These women have gone forth on their 



I 




l-l 
(d 

G 

O 

• ^4 

CO 
CO 

• •-I 

6 

C 
(-1 
a; 

CO 



4> 

g 

o 



Relations and Interrelations i8i 

labor of love to all parts of the land, and it is a 
blessed ministry which they are performing. 

These missionaries are appointed by the Board 
of the Woman's Society, and labor usually under 
the direction of their district secretaries. The So- 
ciety has maintained the most cordial relations with 
the Conventions, and has frequently sought sug- 
gestions from the Conventions as to where mis- 
sionaries should be placed. But until recently no 
plan of cooperation has been wrought out. 

In 191 1 the Society entered into a definite plan of 
cooperation with Conventions in the Far West. 
This has been inaugurated as an experiment. If 
it works successfully, it will be extended to other 
States. The plan at present embraces the States 
of Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, 
Utah, and Washington. The organizations finan- 
cially cooperate in the support of the missionaries 
according to pro rata arrangements that are worked 
out from time to time. The missionaries are all 
appointed by the Woman's Society, upon the ap- 
proval of the Boards of Conventions where they 
are to work, and they labor under the direction of 
these Boards in conference with the Board of the 
Woman's Society. They report to the Convention 
Boards, and are recognized as a part of the State 
force of missionaries. 

This plan is so admirable and is working so well 
that there is every reason to believe that it will soon 
be extended to all the States in which the Society 



i82 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

is placing its missionaries. But in the States where 
the plan is not yet adopted, the Society responds 
to suggestions and requests, and places its mission- 
aries as widely as funds and workers will permit. 
The women missionaries are able to supplement the 
work of the pastors and others in a most valuable 
way, and are rendering a service the value of which 
can scarcely be estimated. 

With the American Baptist Publication 

Society 

For many years the American Baptist Publication 
Society has been one of the most efficient missionary 
agencies of the denomination. Its name does not at 
all adequately represent its work. It is the official 
publishing organization of the denomination. It 
prints large amounts of Bibles, tracts, and religious 
literature as well as the Sunday-school periodicals 
and books of a general character. It long ago or- 
ganized a force of men to distribute, by gift or 
sale, its Bibles and religious publications. These 
men, known as colporters, have been sent all over 
the land, and have been doing a quiet, but persistent 
and effectual work in extending the Kingdom. 
These men do more than sell Bibles. They are 
missionaries at large. They render a real pastoral 
service to thousands of people who for years have 
not entered the door of a church. They gather little 
groups in cabins, schoolhouses, and chapels, and 
preach to them the gospel. Many of these men are 



Relations and Interrelations 183 

provided with conveyances, known as Colportage 
Wagons, in which they live as well as travel. These 
wagons may be found all over the country, and 
they are familiar sights on the Western prairies. 

Heretofore the Publication Society has carried 
on its work more independently than the other mis- 
sionary societies, but it is now working in close co- 
operation with many of the Conventions. In the 
older States the Publication Society and the Con- 
ventions share equally in the payment of the col- 
porters, but in the newer States, where missionary 
work is still in the pioneer stage, the Society and the 
Conventions cooperate on a percentage basis, whicli 
varies according to the financial strength of the 
Convention, from one dollar from the Convention 
for every seven from the Society to one dollar 
for every fifteen. 

The story of the Chapel Car is familiar to every 
student of home missions. The Publication Society 
now owns and maintains six of these churches on 
wheels. They are so constructed as to furnish 
comfortable living quarters for the missionary and 
his wife, and a chapel that seats a good-sized audi- 
ence. These cars have always been transported 
free by the railroads of the West. They are run 
out on a spur track in the new towns of the West, 
usually where there is no church or where the 
church greatly needs help, and the missionaries labor 
for weeks and months, until a church is established 
or an old one revived. To this equipment the 



184 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

Society has recently added two motor-boats for use 
in the bays of the Pacific Coast. 

It is impossible to estimate the service which the 
various missionaries of the Society have rendered, 
especially in the West. Theirs is pioneer work dis- 
tinctly. They have ministered to thousands who 
would never have been reached by any other mes- 
sengers. They have led uncounted numbers into the 
Christian life. They have organized scores of 
churches and erected many houses of worship. 
They have rendered an inestimable service to the 
various State Conventions in establishing the King- 
dom. 

In these later years there has been sent out a force 
of Sunday-school missionaries, whose business it is 
to organize Sunday-schools, visit schools and give 
helpful suggestions and advice, organize teacher- 
training classes, conduct Sunday-school institutes, 
and in every way possible conserve the interests of 
the Bible schools. The offerings of Children's Day, 
observed so generally throughout our churches, are 
used to further this important missionary work of 
the Publication Society. 

With City Mission Societies 

One of the most remarkable phases of modern 
American life is the tremendous growth of our 
cities. There is an increasingly strong tendency 
in all parts of the country for people to congregate 
in the centers, and this tendency is greatly inten- 



Relations and Interrelations 185 

sified by the herding disposition of the European 
immigrants. The rapid development of American 
cities has never had a parallel in the history of the 
world. For example, during the decade 1900-1910, 
New York gained in population thirty-nine per cent ; 
Newark, forty-one per cent; Cleveland, forty-six 
per cent; Minneapolis, forty-eight per cent; Los 
Angeles, two hundred and ten per cent. There are 
now fifty cities in the United States with a popula- 
tion of over 100,000 each, and with an aggregate 
population of over 20,000,000. The average gain 
of these cities in ten years has been thirty-three per 
cent, and over one-fifth of the entire population of 
the country is in these fifty cities. The growth of 
the one hundred and seventy-nine cities, ranging in 
population from 25,000 to 100,000, has been even 
more significant, an average gain of thirty-nine and 
four-tenths per cent. 

The rapid accumulation of the people in the cities 
presents a most serious problem to the Christian 
church. The development has been so rapid that 
the church has not begun to appreciate its serious- 
ness, nor to attack the problem in any adequate 
v^ay. In the cities of the East the increase is due 
largely to immigration from Europe. In the West 
the increase is due to emigration from the East. In 
Boston and Chicago thirty-five per cent of the popu- 
lation are foreign-born. In New York the percent- 
age is forty, while in Indianapolis it is only eight, 
and in Denver eighteen. Even this does not repre- 



i86 The Cojjuiiojni'caltlis and the Kingdom 

sent the real situation. The children of the foreign- 
born should be added, and then you have a most 
serious condition. For example, the foreign-born 
population of Fall River is forty-seven per cent, 
but including the children of the foreign-bo ni, the 
percentage is eighty-nine. In the twenty-five JMassa- 
chusetts cities seventy-eight per cent of the popula- 
tion are of foreign parentage, while in New York 
the Jews alone outnumber those of American parent- 
age. In the Eastern cities, therefore, the problem 
is that of evangelizing the foreigner. In the West 
the problem is that of establishing new American 
churches in the growing centers. 

In the North there are, according to the census 
of 1910, forty-two cities with a population of 
100,000 or more. In thirty of these cities the Bap- 
tists have organized city mission societies for the 
double purpose of church extension and evangeliza- 
tion of the foreigner. In most of the cities, and 
in practically all of those w'ith a population less 
than 500,000, the first phase of the work receives 
the most attention. In one city of 175,000 popula- 
tion, twenty-two per cent of which is foreign-born, 
no mission work for foreigners is being done by 
any denomination. In one city of 325,000 people, 
a little group of 15,000 Protestants is confronted by 
5,000 Italians, 11,000 Bohemians, 13,000 Jews, and 
62,000 Poles. A little work is being done among the 
Poles and Italians, but nothing among the Jews and 
Bohemians. 



Relations and Interrelations 187 

These facts would indicate that despite these 
city mission societies, thirteen of which have super- 
intendents or secretaries giving their entire time to 
the work, and some of which are making heroic 
efforts to solve their problems, the Baptists as a 
denomination have not yet faced the question of city 
missions in any serious way. 

These city mission societies are not in any organic 
way related to the State Conventions, and in many 
cases are not even in direct cooperation with them. 
It must be acknowledged that here is one of the 
weakest points in all our denominational policy and 
work. A study of the situation reveals the fact that 
the cities have been left to solve their own problems. 
There has been a feeling, because the large churches 
are in the cities, that the problem could be left to 
them, and the churches at large do not need to 
concern themselves with it. The State Conventions 
therefore have left the task of city missions very 
largely with the city churches and city mission so- 
cieties, and have devoted their energies to the small 
cities, towns, and open country. According to the 
reports of 1912, the State Conventions are coop- 
erating in only twenty cities of 100,000 population, 
and are investing annually less than $25,000 in city 
work. That this investment on the part of State 
Conventions is disproportionate and entirely inade- 
quate is apparent at once. This divorce ought not 
to exist. The State Conventions need the energy 
and push of the cities. The city mission societies 



i88 The Commonwealths and the Kingdom 

need the sympathy and the stability of the State 
Conventions. 

But the serious thing about this situation is that it 
is an indication that the Baptist churches are fail- 
ing to grasp the problem of the city. The total 
amount expended in the forty-two cities of the 
North in 1912 for city mission work by City Mis- 
sion, Home Mission, and Publication Societies, and 
State Conventions was only $330,000. There is 
encouragement in the fact that this is a decided gain 
over five years ago, but the situation is serious 
for Baptist interests in the United States. In order 
to guarantee their future, Baptists of the North 
need to bring their State Conventions and city mis- 
sion societies into active and hearty cooperation 
and devote their energies at once to church exten- 
sion and the evangelization of the foreigners in the 
cities. 

The situation must not be regarded as hopeless 
however. We are certainly near the dawning of a 
new day. The problems of the city are being 
pressed upon the attention of the people, and there 
is an awakening interest on many sides. There are 
many who are coming to see the dangers to our 
civilization from our great cities, and who are 
determined that these cities shall be redeemed. 
America can never be Christian unless its cities are 
Christian. The American churches, though they may 
be slow to respond, will certainly not permit the 
civilization of this nation to be other than Christian. 






Relations and Interrelations 189 

In these and many other lines the State Conven- 
tions are seeking to cooperate with the Baptist agen- 
cies within their borders. Their one great purpose 
in all the cooperative relations which they establish 
and the work which they undertake, is to make their 
commonwealths worthy of the Christian name. 



I 



AFTERWORD 



AFTERWORD 

In concluding this survey of the history and 
missionary activity of these thirty-seven organiza- 
tions, extending throughout the Northern States 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, we are forced to 
recognize that it is not possible in any adequate 
way, to estimate aright the results that have been 
achieved, either for the upbuilding of the denomi- 
nation or the extension of the Kingdom through the 
agency of the State Conventions. The facts of life 
cannot be pressed into words. 

The work of these Conventions is fundamental. 
In the older States they did the pioneer work 
alone. In the newer States their missionaries fol- 
low hard upon the heels of the pioneers of the 
Home Mission and Publication Societies. With 
these Societies the Conventions have organized a 
campaign to take all these States for the King- 
dom. The Conventions have sent their mission- 
aries and evangelists into every nook and corner 
of our many States. As scouts their men have 
sought out the strategic points. They have opened 

193 



194 Afterword 

Sunday-schools, established missions, organized 
churches, and fostered them until they have be- 
come self-supporting, independent, capable them- 
selves of expressing the missionary spirit. The 
roster of churches aided at some time in their 
career by the State Conventions, includes almost 
every church of the denomination, large and 
small. East and West. It includes the names of 
most of the churches that have now become large 
and powerful. But for the assistance, timely lent, 
many of these churches would never have come 
into being nor weathered the periods of storm and 
stress. 

These Conventions are nurturing and maintaining 
many old churches that have fought a good fight 
and made great contributions to the Kingdom 
but have so divested themselves of their very life 
for His sake that they cannot longer sustain 
themselves alone; yet their spirit is still strong. 
They are fighting the battles in the great cities, 
protecting the rear of the retreating forces, and 
preparing the camp for the oncoming army. They 
are not only establishing life-saving stations in 
the fearful maelstroms of the centers of the cities, 
but they are establishing new outposts whereby 
they may take the whole city for God. 



Afterword 195 

These State Conventions are playing the part 
of the Big Brother to the Strangers within our 
gates, giving them a hand of welcome to their 
adopted country and a cup of cold water in His 
name. To those who have been walking in dark- 
ness they are revealing the great light of His 
countenance, and to those who are crying for the 
friendship of God they are telling the story of the 
Elder Brother. To every man to whom they can 
speak they are repeating the ancient but blessed 
invitation, " Come unto me." 

But they have done more than this. They have 
furnished the rallying-point for Baptists of every 
type and have been the medium of expression for 
the thought and life of the denomination. On 
their platforms the great subjects of denomina- 
tional interest have been fully and frankly dis- 
cussed. In their gatherings the fires of Christian 
enthusiasm have been kindled, the inspiration for 
great undertakings has been caught, and the forces 
of mighty power have been loosed. They have 
inspired and fostered many of the most important 
efforts of the church. They have started and sus- 
tained many of our papers and journals, have 
founded many of our educational institutions, and 
given birth to our national missionary organiza- 
o 



196 Afterword 

tions. In fact, they have assisted nearly every 
undertaking of the denomination, and for the 
origin of many of them they are directly responsible. 
It is a great history. Some worthy pen will tell the 
story some day. " Right mightily wrought they." 

However, their faces are not toward the past, 
but toward the future. They face great oppor- 
tunities. They feel the responsibility of weighty 
obligation. They see great conquests just ahead. 
They wait only for power sufficient for their 
tasks. They await only the hearty, intelligent, en- 
thusiastic devotion of a mighty multitude of Bap- 
tists, that they may establish in these Common- 
wealths the Kingdom of God. 



GOD SAVE THE COMMONWEALTHS OF THE UNITED 

STATES 



APPENDICES 



DIRECTORY OF STATE 
MISSIONARY ORGANIZATIONS 



With names and addresses of Executive 
Officers, said addresses being Baptist Head- 
quarters for the respective States. 

Arizona Baptist Convention. Rev. T. F. Mc- 
Courtney, Corresponding Secretary, 1106 North 
Eleventh Street, Phoenix. 

Northern Cahfornia Baptist Convention. Rev. 
C. W. Brinstad, Corresponding Secretary, 15 
Eucalyptus Road, Berkeley. 

Southern California Baptist Convention. Rev. 
J. F. Watson, Corresponding Secretary, 501 San 
Fernando Building, Los Angeles. 

Colorado Baptist State Convention. Rev. F. B. 
Palmer, Corresponding Secretary, 2333 Holly 
Street, Denver. 

Connecticut Baptist Convention. Rev. A. B. 
Coats, Secretary and Superintendent of Missions, 
y22 Asylum Street, Hartford. 

199 



200 Appendices 

Delaware Baptist Union Association. Rev. J. 
E. Hunsberger, Clerk, 213 South Jackson Street, 
Wilmington. 

Columbia Association of Baptist Churches. 
Rev. J. W. Many, Secretary, Station H, R. F. 
D. 2, Washington, D. C. 

Idaho Baptist Convention. Rev. W. H. Bowler, 
Corresponding Secretary and Superintendent of 
State Missions, Boise. 

Illinois Baptist State Convention. Rev. E. P. 
Brand, Superintendent of Missions, Normal. 

Indiana Baptist Convention. Rev. W. B. Pope, 
Superintendent of State Missions, Franklin. 

Iowa Baptist State Convention. Rev. S. E. 
Wilcox, Secretary and General Missionary, Des 
Moines. 

Kansas Baptist Convention. Rev. J. T. Craw- 
ford, Missionary Secretary, Parsons. 

Maine Baptist Missionary Convention. Rev. I. 
B. Mower, Corresponding Secretary, Waterville. 

Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society. 
Rev. F. W. Padelford, General Secretary, Room 
500, Tremont Temple, Boston. 

Michigan Baptist Convention. Rev. E. M. 
Lake, General Superintendent of Missions, Wood- 
ward Avenue Baptist Church, Detroit. 



Appendices 201 

Minnesota Baptist State Convention. Rev. E. 
R. Pope, Corresponding Secretary, 405 Evanston 
Building, Minneapolis. 

Missouri Baptist General Association. Rev. T. 
L. West, Corresponding Secretary and Superin- 
tendent of Missions, CarroUton. 

Montana Baptist Convention. Rev. Thomas 
Stephenson, Corresponding Secretary and Super- 
intendent Convention Missions, Helena. 

Nebraska Baptist State Convention. Rev. Fred 
Berry, Secretary and Superintendent of Missions, 
Fraternity Building, Lincoln. 

Nevada-Sierra Baptist Convention. Rev. G. N. 
Gardner, Acting Secretary, Elko. 

New Hampshire Baptist Convention. Rev. O. 
C. Sargent, Secretary, Concord. 

New Jersey Baptist Convention. Rev. D. De- 
wolf, General Secretary and Superintendent of 
Missions, 825 Broad Street, Newark. 

Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of 
New York. Rev. C. A. McAlpine, Corresponding 
Secretary, 1218 Granite Building, Rochester. 

North Dakota Baptist Convention. Rev. C. E. 
Hemans, Corresponding Secretary, Plaza. 

Ohio Baptist Convention. Rev. C. J. Rose, 
Corresponding Secretary and Superintendent of 
Missions, Granville. 



202 Appendices 

Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Rev. 
J. C. Stalcup, Corresponding Secretary and Super- 
intendent of Missions, First Baptist Church, Okla- 
homa City. 

Oregon Baptist State Convention, Rev. O. C. 
Wright, Corresponding Secretary, 308 Y. M. C. 
A. Building, Portland. 

Pennsylvania Baptist General Convention. Rev. 
C. A. Soars, General Secretary, 1701 Chestnut 
Street, Philadelphia. 

Rhode Island Baptist State Convention. Rev. 
John Stewart, Secretary, 406 Butler Exchange, 
Providence. 

South Dakota Baptist Convention. Rev. S, P. 
Shaw, Secretary, Sioux Falls. 

Utah Baptist State Convention. Rev. G. N. 
Gardner, x\cting Secretary, Elko, Nevada. 

Vermont Baptist State Convention. Rev. W. A. 
Davison, Secretary and Superintendent of Mis- 
sions, Burlington. 

East Washington and North Idaho Baptist Con- 
vention. Rev. W. C. King, Corresponding Secre- 
tary and Superintendent, Rookery Building, Spo- 
kane, Washington. 

Western Washington Baptist Convention. Rev. 
J. H. Beaven, Secretary, New York Block, Seattle, 
Washington. 



I 



Appendices 203 

Baptist General Association of West Virginia. 
Rev. L. B. Moore, Corresponding Secretary, Park- 
ersburg. 

Wisconsin Baptist State Convention, Rev. D. W. 
Hulburt, General Superintendent, Wauwatosa. 

Wyoming Baptist State Convention. Rev. Hal 
P. Fudge, Corresponding Secretary, 517 West 
Twenty-sixth Street, Cheyenne. 



204 



Appendices 



CO 

ON 

ON 



1-H 


o 




0) 


,1^ 


^ 


CO 


<u 


U 


u 


1— H 


o 


H 


u 
o 

(1) 


zn 


m 


l-H 


«-M 


H 


O 


<i1 


Si 


H 




CO 


« 




r/T 


Z 


:3 


o 


c 
d 


H— 1 


<: 


H 




Z 


C/3 


w 


6 


> 


o 

i-, 


z 




o 


'a 
g 
o 
U 


u 


w 




H 




<5 




H 




CO 





pUBJO 



M On VO t^ 

d 6 o6 lo 



M vo in tN, o\ p^ tJ- 

0\ CO 00 "^ 00 t^ 00 



t^ ^0 00 
O Tt" N 

M lO t^ 



0\ M t>. CO to 0\ 
O O M vo 0\ vo 
t^ rf t^ fO t^ M 



o o o 00 w 

C\ Cv) C>^ fO tx 



TfO l-l COlOOO u^c< 
lOCNiOO C< O\O00 0\ 

^ Tf Tl- Tj- CV< vo Tt- 



3DU3DTJ3U9g 



O 00 

\o cs 



CO o c^ m 

M O vo w 

M lO CO On 

m" O 00 lO 

Tj- 00 M VO 



Ov O 
O 0^ 



m M vo 

M CO w 
CO Tf m 



CO vo 

N 00 

CO Tt 
t>. CO 



tN vo 0\ 

IT) vo lO 

O; vo C< 

cT w fo 
O t^ 00 



S3SU9dX3 
JOJ 

papuadxg 



00 rf-l^iOO lOTtCOONl>.COM TfCOOO »o 
lOOOVO lOCOCOOO lOCOC^VO t^OO CV| t^OV 

Mvd t^coxowvdvo cooo io-<j-v6o6 COlO 
lOMMOC^COOsCOOt^OOOt^cowoO 
Tt-VOVO Tj-lOCJOO lOT^C^^OO COCOOOlO*^ 

voodc^^^o^'^'*^Ccoo^Tj-^J~cocq oco 
C^iOCOOt^vOOTfiOOvvOMt^OOMOv 

«^^^^^M^^ w ococoTj-MTt-^oi 



X;j3doJj 

qojnq3 

aniBA 



lO Tf- lO vo o o 

c^ On "-I On 00 O 
rt- vo CO On O 



lO 



00 M t^ t^ On On 
tJ- t^ lO On Tf vo 
i-c vo CN| vo Tl- »o 



O CO On O On 

O tv w O •* 

O CO VO O O 

O CO CO lO VO 

w On vo w M 

O n O; 00 VO 

M vo" ci cT 



vn vo 
Tt vo 
vo ts. 

vo 00 
t^ CI 
On CO 



sSuipjing 



CO !>. 
CNJ O 



On Ov O 00 w 
t^ t^ VO CI c< 



HH Tl- o vn vo vo 

Tj- CO CO vo Tl- O 

On rj- CO CO C^ 



vo 00 
CO oo 

00 M^ 

On 00 



o o 

vo Tj- 





: ^ 


00 


T^ 


CO 


CO 




-* 


o 


00 


c< 


00 


IH 


00 


o 


Tt- 




* Tf 


tN, 


CO 


t>, 


On 




vo 


On 


Tf 


c< 


vo 


^ 


r^ 


00 


VO 




* t>» 


vo 


c^ 


l-l 


M 






00 


N 


vn 


01 


01 


oo 


vo 


CO 


sjaqmaj^ 








*-* 








tN, 




CO 


CI 






ci 


6\ 




: <^ 


vo 


"* 


^ 


c< 




«^ 


On 


CO 00 


CN| 


CO 


tN. 


N 


vo 










M 








vo 




CO 


CO 




hi 


rt 


N 


saqojnqo 


: 































diqsJ9qm3j\[ 



COC^ 01 -^ONCOt^vorrCJ O O t-i vo-^co 
ONtvt^COrfvO wvo OnOO m vnOoO rJ-O 
t>^0 t^COOO O CO l-l vOTl-vocOfOvovO ►-< 
M TtvOCOvovoodcOHTo vocow tCinvo 
MMI-lOl vot^rfvoCNJtN.TJ-M 



S3qDJnq3 

jaquin^^ 

Ib;ox 



H-i O O O CO On I 
CO vo On CO vo CNJ M 



VO COCO'TJ-VO O TfOOO 

Tj-MVO I-c C^ '^t'Tj-TfVO 

N vorfvo M cotJ-M 



3g 

O H 



^ c/i 



• 2 

: s 



s <^ © 2 ^ 

*- rt -« o o '^ .^ ^ 



o • 
rt U 

^ o 

rt ^- ^ 



O d 



CO 

rt <u 
"J S ^ 



^ S O 



rt 



< U U U U Q Q S S .5 ^ W g ^ g ^ 



Appendices 



205 



M Tj- 





00 





t^ 





00 in 


• CO 


in 


01 


00 


01 





VO 


tN VO 


vo 


On 


01 


'I "? 





CO 


00 


(M 


q 


vq 00 


* ^. 


q 


q 


Tl- 


q 


q 


vq 


vn 


q 


00 


00 


06 l^ 06 


CO 


4 vd 


t>. 


w in 


I In. 


H4 


oi 


in 


vd 


CO 


d 


in d 


tN 


On 


On 


fO ^r> 


)-( 





00 





tN. 


CO tN, 


• M 


Tj- 


On 


00 


vo 


Tj- 


CM 


vo CO 


01 


On 


vn 


^^ ^ 


i-i 


CO 


vo^ 


in 


t^ 


q^ in 


• d 


tN 




q 


00 


OO \0 


CO 00 


On 


tN 






































t^ «i 


0\ 


in 


I-I 


CO 


On 


00*" tN 


: tN vo 


M 


CO 


Tt 00 


01 


On rf 


m 


00 


PO 


00 in 00 




I-I 


e< 


CM 


in 00 


• vo 


hH 


01 





w 





01 


Tf 


CO 


i-t 


00 





M 




M 





1-1 


vo 


• M 


qN 


01 


tH 




M 


M 


1-1 01 


01 




01^ 


"" 










cT 




*: 


M 




















h-l l-( 











in 





m vo 


: ^ 


^ 


in 


01 








^ On 00 





CO 





« vo 








N 


t^ 





CO «■ 


• 00 


M 


CO 


in 


in 


q 


VD 


CO CO 


On 


CO 


in 


fO 1-^ 


CO 


CO 


vd 


t^ 


CTn 


06 ^ 


• 06 


4 


vd 


vd 


d 


d 


t^ in M 


On 


vd 


CO 


(^ >o 


01 


On 


-"t 


Tf 


On 


tN 1-1 


• in 


0^ 





00 


00 


ON 


On CO I-I 











!>. vq^ 


■r}- 


CO 


in 





CO 


^. "t 


* in 


rt 


in 


vo^ 


q 


in 


■<t CM in 


CO 


in 


01^ 
































•s 






try -^ \o 


M 





0" 


I-I 


CO 


. Ov 


4 


"^ 


o" 


M 


ix 


I-I 


CO 


t^ 


M 


00" 


t^ 


Tf 




C4 


rf 


■* 


00 


'. ^ 




CO 


0^ 




M 


M 


N CO 


CO 




00 


^ 










Tt 




I 


M 


















oT 

■6(9- 


w PO 





00 





CM 





CO 


• On 


„ 


i>. \o 


01 





01 


00 00 


VO 


vo 


01 


M On 





CO vo 


vn 


q 


CO ■'t ^ tN 


t^ 


m 


On 


Tj- 


q 





w vo 




m 


CO 


in d\ 


in 


6 


00 


00 


06 


CO rj- . 00 


t^ 


NO 


06 


vd 


CO 


in d 06 


tN 


CO 


vd 


w 00 


0\ 


w 


CO 


in 


tx 


m vo 


. VO 





00 


On 00 


in 




CO 1-1 




On 


m 


»n bN. 


N 


On 




in 


CO 


t^ ix 


: vq 


CO 


VO^ 


01^ 


00 


t>. 


M 


00 00 


m 


Tt 


in 




































<o tC 


CO 


CO 


VH 


01 


00 


d^ 00 


• tN 


oT 


vo 


CO 


oT 


6 


I-I 


in CO 00 


tC 


in 


M Tf 


Tt- 




0\ 


00 


00 


rf On • CO 





00 


00 


M 


On 


M 


01 t^ 


On 


IH 


On 


00 








t^ vq 


m ; w 


tN. 










M 


M M 


IH 




ts. 












•H 




: 


I-I 


















«Q- 


00 fO 


01 


in 


in 


On 


o\ 


vo 


• 01 





vo 










00 ►-I 





I-I 


00 


1-1 t^ 





i-i 


CO 


00 


vo 





• tN 








CO 







OC 


tN vo 


ON 


1-1 


I-I 


On m^ 


00^ 


Tt- 


''t 


t^ 


CM 


CM ■* ' 01 


q 


tN 


tN 


^ 




oc 


w 00 


tN 00 


'^ 




































« tC 


1-1 





tC 


t>« 


VO 


in (?N .00 


00" 


vo 


10 


10 




oc 


CO in 


00 


t^ 


vn 


00 m 


00 


VO 


vo 


VO 


C?N 


00 


. in 


tN 


On 





CO 




VC 


00 00 


vo 


M 


vo 


in \o 


00 




t^ 


tN. 


00 


M NO 


• tN 


M 


^^ 


-* 


I-I 




■* Tf 00 


00 


M 


IH 


































•> 


Tj- 








VO 


d 


CO • 


I-I 


M 










I-I 


M 




in 












01 




i 


" 


















00 


On m 


^ 


"77 




On 


in 


00 in • CO 


CO 




-* 


0\ 


in 


tN. in vn 


M 


in 


m 


vn c^ 


Tj- 


)_i 




On 


<?N vo W 


. 00 


00 




t^ 




On 


vo 


00 On 


00 


01 


vo 


c^ 








fO 00 


vo 




t^ 












00 






tN 


«'~ 














• 




















00 


fo 00 


co 




CI 


CV| 


vo 


CO • 01 


On vo 


CO 


01 


01 




in • 


in 







M CM 


1-1 


* 





o\ 


vo 


t^ in * vo 


i-( 


tN 


CO 


M 


CO 




*^ '. 


M 









00^ 


* 


M 


vq 


CO 


in Tf • 1-*^ 


°° 


IH 


00^ 








in 


in 




Tj- 




































" 


M 


• 




" 


"* 


CO M 


: " 


00 




oT 








. " : 


^ 




d^ 
in 


t^ CO 


00 


.- 


't 


ts, 


0< 


in c 


'. ^ 


^ 


„ 


l^ 


„ 


M 


^ 


■5 t^ • 


01 




t>. 


l-l 


cs 


• 




HH 


CO 


Tf M 


I 


CO 




CO 








01 ] 


vo 




00 
vo 


in \0 








in 


CM 


M 


On in t^ 


in 


-^ 


Tj- 


CO 


CO 


c 


•5 M NO 


00 


tN 


ON 


fO 0\ 


(^ 


CO 





CO 


01 


in CO CO in 


in 


t^ VO 





01 


1/ 


■5 01 


T}- vo 


VO 


0\ PO 


<N 


Tl- 


N 


in 


01^ 


-"t q q « 





■<t 


in 


)-i 


00 


^ 


X Tj- 


q 


00 


00^ 




































CO C^J 


in 




0\ VO 


00 


in tN NO oT 


0" 


in 


tN 


HI 


00 


VC 


r 0" 00" 


00" 


tH 


in 


w 


M 






vo 


vo 


oc 


On hh 


CO 


M 










hH vo 


M 




M 


M 










^ 






^ 


















in 


er> M 


00 


01 


On 


„ 


CO 


in t^ M Tj- 


01 


00 


01 


„ 


in 


c 


1-1 


m 00 


in 


vo CO 


On 




00 


t^ 


in 


t^ Tt W 


tN 


tN 




M 


On « 


) N CO 





CO 


Tj- 


CS^ 




«5 




CO 


On 


vo 


^ "^ 


tN 




M 






^ 


M 00 


HI 




01 


cT 














•^ 




















1 i 








u 
in 


>, 






'. I 


'5 


'6 













T 


.* 


[ 


Missouri 
Montana 
Nebraska 
Nevada . 
New Ham 
New Jersc 
New Yorl 
North Da 
Ohio - . . 





IS 


Q 

-4-1 



in 


.B 
P > 


c 

It 
(/ 

r 


Washingtc 

West Vir; 
Wisconsin 
Wyoming 




H 

1 



w 







^ 


c 


CTJ 


u 


Tl 





H-f 










vs 


C 


u 






(U 


.s 






u 
a 







V-. 




:3 


i-> 




5 


«j 


M 







M 






4J 




tn 


*4H 


V 


n 


.a 




4-" 


JH 


Mh 








C 




(U 


p 


> 



o <u 



2o6 



Appendices 



CO 

ON 

I 

(M 

ON 



u 




1— H 




H 


en" 


c/:? 


O 


HH 


o. 


H 


C^ 


^ 


oT 


H 


^3 


C/D 






< 


Z 


dJ 


O 




H-H 




H 


o 


z 


M-l 


w 




> 


a 


z 


o 
U 


o 




u 




w 




H 




<3 




H 




c« 





suoi^bziubSjo 

3;b;s jo 

spurijj p9;S9AUI 



i 


. o 

. o 

6 

o 

CO 




M O 
Ti- O 

CO 6 

OJ o 





o vo 



IT) 



O fO CO 

in tx 00 

in m" cf 

Tl- Tj- 0\ 



Xppog 
uoissij;\[ amoH 
i^q p3;nqu;uo3 



oooooooo 
oooooooo 

ddiooojcood 
00r><0iHTtcv)0 
mto\0 vowoo -rt O 



O • O O Th 

O • O O vo 

6 * d in M 

o . o t^ Tj- 

o . T}- 00 m 



Ul p3SlB^ 



OC^VOOC^OOOwmCOCnttOx 

Nfoq\oo\inM p^voovini-itN. 

M d\c4 d Mio'^vd d^dod foin 
"^t>.ino t>.ininTj-rj-o t>.rs.vo 
cv) ■<^rominTtmt^mt-i mvovd 

fOM'<^dIoo pf'^-^opTd^in 

■€/3- M W M CSJ M M 



9DU3DlJ3U3a; 
JOJ 

suoi;nqu;uo3 



in (^ !>. o in 00 Tf 

v£) Tj- CO vo Cn 00 c^ 



tx t^ r^ in w 00 O 
cq 0\ o in c^ in fo 
lo CO 00 (S in cq m 



s9qojnq3 uoisstj/\[ 
ui sj9qm9j^ 



to c> M 00 00 c^ Tf 
m vo fo t>. CO 00 w 
00 "^ c^ CO vo c^ m 



sppij UOISSl]^ 



in 0^ in CO vo O w 
ts, w O CO O CO in 
in CO c<i w 



uo smspdEg 




: 


S9pIlBU0i;B^ 

JO j9quin!^ 


CO 01 m eo m CO cvj 


• vo C^ CO CO CO 


S9qojnq3 uoissij\[ 


M 0\ o t^ 00 bv rf 

Tj- Ti- m 0\ c^ 


• o 00 M- vo c« 

; CO N 00 w o 

. MM 



• O On O bx 

• t>, VO M 00 



00 M VO 00 

c^ O vo "-^ 
CO CO cT ^^ 



O vo C< l>> CO 

vo in o 00 ■* 

CO CO l>. M M 

cf pT oT CO cT 



CO Tj- 00 o o\ 
O vo 00 \o o 
^ O CO m M 



> o 

6^ 





vo 


o 


vn 


o 


O 


tN, 


Tt- 


VO 


vo 


CI 


00 


ON 


M 


SJO^SBJ 


M 


^ 


'^ 


m 


CO 






CO 


01 


CO 


vo 


Tj- VO 




CO 


o 


00 


rt- 00 


M 




00 


CO 00 


in 


CO 


^s, 


1BJ9U93 




CM 














M 






PJ 





O 

H < 
< N 

O 



^ in 



«5 g H 
O 



o o 2 ^ ^ 
'J^ 'c3 'c3 'o 



.2 S 

O O rt 






CO c 

CO J5 



<UUUUQQSs>5h5M;^ 



Appendices 



207 



NO M o o 

o -^ o o 

C\ VO 6 00 

VO \0 10 vo 

CS 00 ^ ^ 

o M |C^ o 

^» M M 04 



t>. 



o 

4 
00 



00 cs CO • M 

t^ o\ irt ; o\ 

ts. w tC. . 06 

00 <N 00 -CI 

CO CO o ; "^ 

00 -4 vo • »o 

<N CO 0< • 01 

04 M • 



CO O 

t^ o 



O M CO 

O 00 VO 
O t-< 00 

rt tC 00 
OJ 00 





,H 





m • 1 




10 





On ; 1 




^H 





. 1 










. 




VO 


M 


00 • ! 












00 


M 


\n . 1 




h-c 




fs • 1 




C4 




^ M ; 



00 o 

o< o 

VO d 

i^ o 

en oj^ 

VO oT 



in 10 

o o 



0\ m 



10 CO O) "^ 

oq VO 0\ VO 

^ ^ ^ ^ 

M oT t-T \o 



0000 

O O t-i o 



Omioo^oO'^tx 

000 OiCOO ovovo 



O O tvCO ovooo coo 



t>» 00 



O tx CO 00 o 
O t>» VO o o 



O i^ "<t 

•1 tN 00 



0000CS»-«O\"*M0000i-t VO 



i-i ioCnONOO iOOnO a\o O t^mO OJ O lOvOOl 

■^Tj-o Tj-oovo Ttoooo o o o 01 ono 000 OnOO 



is. 








00 


04 


06 


(-4 


00 


00 


00 


Os 


Ch 


1^ 


VO 


CO 


tx 


CO 


rt- 


VO 


\o 


oj 


VO 


6 


VO 








00 


oq 





0\ 


01 


rt 





00 





00 


10 


hH 


t^ 


Tt- 


>-i 


to 


CO 


m 


CO 








0\ 


10 





oq 





0\ 


M 


in 


VO 


•1, 


10 


''t 


tN. 


1 


VO^ 





-* 


10 


VO 


CO 


tN. 


^ 


CO 


1 


VO 



10 tx tx 00 CO 



VO 
00 

CO 



00 rf O 

VO i-H t>. 



O O t>. . 04 VO VO 
04 Tf CO . 0\ "-I 04 

Tj- o w • 00 «rt ^s 



00 CO CO • M 



00 On VO 
VO 11 VO 

CO tx CO 



o o 
o o 



VO . VO . CO CO 

01 . tS . O M 

VO • 04 . Tt tv. 

04" * * CO 



O 10 04 04 

00 00 On 00 



VO 1-1 On -^ 
VO VO CO O) 
CO VO w t>* 



•&9- 



Tf 00 O ts 
04 On 1-1 O 
O VO 00 00 
00 IN oT tC 



M VO VO VO 04 H-i 00 
w Tj- Ov 04 VO VO On 
00 04 On VO Tf On i-i 



ts w 04 04 00 VO 
00 ts n- 04 xo VO 
On t^ 10 VO 04 t-x 



rj- 10 O O 
ts 04 »^ tN 
ts 00 Tj- VO 



t^oOTl-coo^o^NOo^ON04040404voNOON^s 

•<t04 ON04 04 Tt-TttN.VO t>.ONtNO Tj-O M O 
POO4M0OM04 04t^ •*0404On m 



04 voNO On4>sm CO-«tOO coOVO 

-^■-ONwi-Hi-iOltsOOi-i 

-I CO 04 CO M M 



On 
VO 



iO^Tfri-04 i-i TtONVOTl-VOt-i COt>»lOCO04 C004VO P4 "^m 



voioOOCOC004tN.Mio040NOO •ioOtxVO0404iOOi-HTi-00 
OnOn04ioC000mioO\00»O1O '^s00Mts^-(lO00vOM•<!i-04 

11 M CO * M 



VO 



fssVOTfvocOM rt-Ol M 04 w O "^04 m 04 COO lOm^J-OO OnOn 
04 ■'tiooo 04 o) I-I >!d"vo Tt'oi Tj-iocoi-i I-I -^f-i -^a-io-^cocoi-i 

M M 04 W 



M OV04 04 1-1 co-^COCOOVO 

I-I It M 



OOVO 04 VOM O Ovt^voOO I-I 




s :5 .s 



<n .:r 



o 5 



PS 



C o 



;^^^^g;^^;^;^;^^oo 






be IT 

IS 4-. 



o fS; S c^ 5 > & & ^ & & 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



On the Problems of Immigration 

Aliens or Americans? Howard B. Grose. 

The Incoming Millions. Howard B. Grose. 

Elemental Forces in Home Missions. Lemuel C. Barnes. 

The New America. M. C. and L. C. Barnes. 

The Broken Wall. Edward A. Steiner. 

The Immigrant Tide. Edward A. Steiner. 

Against the Current. Edward A. Steiner. 

On the Trail of the Immigrant. Edward A. Steiner. 

America, God's Melting Pot. Laura C. Craig. 

The Immigrant. Frederick J. Haskin. 

The New Immigration. Peter Roberts. 

The American People. A. Maurice Low. 

Conservation of National Ideals 

Consult various authors. 

Mormonism, The Islam of America. Bruce Kinney. 

On the Country Church 

The Day of the Country Church. J. O. Ashenhurst. 

Life of John Frederick Oberlin. F. A. Beard. 

The Country Church and the Rural Problem. K. L. 
Butterfield. 

Institutional Work for the Country Church. C. E. Hay- 
ward. 

208 



Appendices 209 

Problem of the Town Church. G. A. Miller. 
The Rural Problem of the United States. Sir Horace 
Plunkett. 

Report of the United States Commission on Country 
Life. 

The Church of the Open Country. W. H. Wilson. 

Any of the above books may be ordered through the 
American Baptist Publication Society, 1701-1703 Chestnut 
Street, Philadelphia. 

Histories of the Baptists in several of the States have 
been written and may be secured through the respective 
State headquarters. The list includes, at least, Maine, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Michigan, Indiana, Oregon, and Washington. A valuable 
pamphlet, " The Pacific Coast Conference," describing the 
work on the Pacific Coast, and from which liberal extracts 
have been taken for this book, may be secured from The 
Pacific Baptist, McMinnville, Ore. Literature describing 
the convention work in the various States may be secured 
from the secretaries at the respective State headquarters. 



DEC 2 1313 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 236 834 1 



